BAD BLOOD(PART 1)

by Gizmo

SG-1 meets someone who has a little problem with sunlight and doesn't mind a bit of O-negative.

BAD BLOOD

Disclaimers: Stargate and all the characters from that show are the property of Showtime and all those other very richly paid people. I am only borrowing them for the duration of this story.

Spoilers: Nothing major but it's best if you have seen all of Season Three.


Please do me a favour and review this. I can't know how much you liked it if you don't. Enjoy.




As if it was a whirlpool, the Stargate opened onto another world, throwing a blue tinge on the heavy greens and browns of the forest's grasses and trees. The blue was even more apparent on the symmetrical piles of stone that had once been impressive buildings, now the only remnants of a dead culture. Settling down to a shimmering flat plane, the pool settled and then rippled again as four figures stepped through, wrecking the silence again. With a high pitched whoosh the pool disappeared leaving the four people alone in the darkness.

"There's the probe, sir. Up in that tree."

The one female in the group covered her face with her free hand as she watched the Colonel look for the probe. Not that it was hard to miss except for one thing. When the stench of decaying foliage was near unbearable your stomach overrides nearly every other sense in your body including sight. At the moment all she could see was a silver blur in a whole lot of green and brown.

"Sweet. Any ideas on how to get it down, Major?"

Colonel Jack O'Neill looked at the blonde and grimaced. The stench was really getting to him.

* God. If this doesn't get any better I'm going to break out the gas masks. *

"I think we'll have to shoot it down, sir. It's too high up and I wouldn't like to try climbing those trees..."

Despite the smell, Jack managed a smile.

"What's the matter, Carter, I thought you were the climbing type?"

"I hate heights."

They chuckled at the joke and stopped when an almighty sneeze broke the silence.

"I really hate jungles."

"And here I was thinking you really wanted to see this bunch of rocks..."

"Artefacts, Jack, they're artefacts. And I'm more used to dry climates than this aha..."

The archaeologist broke off the conversation with another massive sneeze, breaking out a tissue at the last second. Jack left his friend in his little ball of misery knowing that nothing he could do would help. Besides, he'd probably start laughing. Hefting his gun, he tried estimating the height to the probe.

It was one of Sam's personally designed new little toys, a step up from the first flying probe that she had built from scratch. It had managed to give them all of half of a second's telemetry before doing a kamikaze into a redwood. That and the fact that the machine was worth half a mill easy were the only reasons that he was even thinking about getting this one down.

*And maybe the fact that Carter might sulk if I don't. *

Walking forward a few steps he braced himself of a rock forming one of the ruins. It slid from under him and disappeared into the vegatatation on the other side. A deep 'ploomp' sounded after a second and he stepped back looking at the ruins again. Each of the piles seemed to be connected and formed the sides, or at least pieces of sides, to buildings. And each building had a basement or some underground access. Reaching in he pulled on one of the 'weeds' and got a ten-foot length of some sort of grass for his troubles. The bottom three feet were soaked with water.

* Might be worth checking out. But first things first. *

Aiming his gun slightly to the side he called out to his second in command.

"I'm going to see how much damage we can do to the tree. If we can knock a good chunk of bark off, fine. If not, we go climbing. When you come over here, stay away from these squares. They're pools or something."

"That's weird, Jack."

The Colonel took the bait.

"Why?"

"Well, most cultures that evolve in a jungle environment like this wouldn't build stone structures like these except for ceremonial reasons. Pools would suggest reservoirs but in a climate like this that's not necessary. If these were buildings then these squares are the only remnants and these pools are actually basements. But basements would suggest storage space, which wouldn't work in this climate. And they certainly wouldn't build the building's doorway so close to the ground. If this planet has a rainy season like most Earth type jungles, the basement would flood within hours."

Waving his hand in the air, the Colonel asked the fatal question.

"And this means what, exactly?"

The young man shrugged and began opening one of his notebooks. He bent over one of the piles of stone and started to examine the chisel marks, if there were any. Jack waved Carter over to his young friend with a 'keep and eye on him' look. He had other things to worry about. Raising the stock to his shoulder he tightened his finger on the trigger and squeezed.

"O'Neill. Do not fire."

The Jaf'far's whisper was enough to carry from one part of the clearing. Pointing with his staff weapon, he showed the Colonel the beginning of a trail that looked all too fresh for comfort. Squatting down, the human cursed himself for not being more careful.

"What is it, Teal'c?"

He knew that his friend wouldn't bother him if it had been animal tracks or a lone person's shoeprints but the former First Prime of Apophis was never one to react without reason.

"I count four people. Most possibly Jaf'far."

Well that was enough for the Colonel.

"Daniel, dial it up. Carter, as soon as you can get onto Hammond and tell him we need backup just in case."

With the orders given, Jack and Teal'c backed up from the trail and into the forest. Daniel ran to the ever present DHD and began tapping the symbols that 'phoned home'. His team-mate squatted beside him and raised her gun, searching every inch of the forest for signs of a possible attack.

Daniel Jackson hit the symbols hard and fast, knowing that with each hit, the sound of the chevrons clicking into place could be calling down an army. Smacking his hand onto the red orb at the centre he watched as the Stargate burst to life again. Jack and Teal'c ran back to the gate, Carter covering their every step. No sooner than they had reached the relative safety of the DHD then they heard the familiar clank-clank walk of approaching Jaf'far.

"Carter. Forget the message. Send the code and move."

Tapping the little panel on her wrist she entered a ten-digit code and was grateful to see a green LED light up signifying that the code had been sent. Jumping to her feet she began the run to the gate and stamped down all the fears about the arrival at the other side.

* The signaller has malfunctioned and the iris is still closed. Siler dropped a spanner and the iris opening mechanism is shorted... *

As her foot hit the first step the snap-crack of a staff weapon echoed across the clearing a hairsbreadth ahead of the Colonel's return fire. A blast dug into the steps ahead of the fleeing Major, knocking her aside and into a nearby pile of rubble.

******

He was running as fast as he could now, relying on the pattern of green and brown of his camouflage gear to hide him in the forest. If a Jaf'far got a clear shot then that was that but he'd dodge and twist his way to the Stargate until then. His only hope was that their wouldn't be anyone between him and the 'gate. And even if there was he might have some cover in the ruins.

******

Jack raged as he saw Carter sail through the air and land in a heap. There had been nothing graceful about her landing, as bone jarring as it must have been. The Jaf'far advanced into the clearing, firing with each step. And Jack saw his chance.

"Cover me."

Daniel and Teal'c both rose and fired their weapons. The rapid crack of the archaeologist's gun was tiny compared to the thunder of his Jaf'far friend's staff weapon but they did almost equal destruction. An attacking Jaf'far went down, then another and then Jack's present arrived. The single grenade plopped down in front of the attackers and detonated. Because the forest was so dense the Jaf'far were crowded into a bunch and when the smoke cleared none were left standing. Teal'c ran forward, pulling his zat gun, and fired once at a Jaf'far that was trying to get up. He fired a second time and that was that.

******

He didn't get lucky. A quick glance at his watch gave him the bad news. In ninety seconds a nice chunk of this planet was going to be vapour and the neighbouring chunks would be mostly fireball. And if it couldn't get worse there was a bunch of 'animal crackers' in the way.

Whipping out a gun in each hand, he jumped and rolled into the clearing, firing in the direction of the Jaf'far. If he had been human the recoil would have knocked the weapons from his hands. The rounds found their mark, cutting into the six guards and killing them before they could get a shot off at him. Once the last of them had fallen to the ground he raced to the DHD and began dialling in Gamma Site's address. Smacking his hand down on the central orb he heard reinforcements arriving.

Running as fast as his legs could carry him, he made for the Stargate just as the Jaf'far entered the clearing. They fired almost without reason and bracketed him easily. Returning fire as best he could he tried to cover the last few yards to safety. And failed as a staff weapon blast hit him in the shoulder, smashing him to the ground.

He kept rolling along the grass towards a small pile of stones, using the momentum from the shot to get to cover. Not that it mattered because the bomb was all of ten seconds from going 'booom'. The pain from the wound flared each time he rolled but he had to keep going. Even if he was going to die it wasn't going to be by some fucking Cracker's weapon. He hit the wall and the hiss and crack of the Jaf'far's weapons died for a second as the pain swamped his senses. Rising one handed he pushed himself up the side of the pile, leaving a bloody streak behind him. Blasts kept hitting around him, missing less and less as the Jaf'far kept coming on.

Another blast hit him and then another and he spun, falling back over the pile and into cover. As he slid down to the bottom he raised his gun and aimed it to where the first Jaf'far would come into sight. He hit the bottom and disappeared beneath the water.

******

With the last of the Jaf'far down, Daniel ran to Sam's side and gently rolled her over. There were a few cuts on her face from flying shards of stone and a long green streak across her forehead from landing in the grass. Jack came up, pointing his weapon back towards the bodies, covering Teal'c as he checked the fallen Jaf'far for signs of life.

"How is she?"

Daniel shrugged and applied what little field medicine he had to checking his friend. Her pulse was strong but her eyes were dilated. Running his hands down her spine he couldn't find anything wrong. He said as much to Jack.

"Fine. Lift her up and we'll get the hell out of here. The next time we come back we bring reinforcements."

"O'Neill. There is no reason to hurry."

"What?"

The Colonel ran over to Teal'c, his weapon still at the ready. He looked down to where Teal'c was pointing and saw what the Jaf'far had seen.

The attackers, even dead, looked bad. It wasn't hard to see the signs of malnutrition and disease and the last worried him.

"Are they... were they ill?"

The impassive man shook his head.

"If a Jaf'far does not receive at least a small measure of food each day, the symbiote will feed off of the host to stay alive. But this takes some time. From what I can see these have not fed in some time. At least a month by my estimation."

Jack went to ask about reinforcements and heard a groan. Swinging back he saw Carter being lifted up from the ground. As Daniel pulled her upright she shook her head and groaned again. Jack smiled and walked back to them. And then stopped as a splash sounded from behind his friends.

Jack dropped into a squat and began to walk forward. Daniel had dropped to the ground again, letting Carter hit the ground again. She started to moan and Daniel covered her mouth loosely to muffle any noise. Jack stopped again and looked back to Teal'c. The Jaf'far had dropped his staff weapon and held his zat gun out and aimed towards the rubble. Making a wide circling motion with his right arm, the soldier moved off to the left, hoping to catch whomever this was in a crossfire.

******

Jack slowed down, letting Teal'c cover more ground. It was harder for his friend to move through the ruins, trying to avoid falling into one of the pits that seemed were around. The problem of locating whoever or whatever this was wasn't going to be a problem. A rustle of leaves came every few seconds from the bottom of one of these holes, probably a trapped Jaf'far or something. As soon as SG1's Jaf'far got within twenty feet of the target, Jack moved forward and went to look down, then though better of it. Grabbing a piece of rotting wood he stuck it out and tapped the rocks. A trio of bullets cracked into the rubble in answer.

Teal'c took the chance given by Jack and stood up, firing the zat gun down into the hole. A single shot rang out, hitting the Jaf'far in the side. Jack pointed his gun down and fired a few unaimed shots, buying a chance for his friend to get into cover. Teal'c rolled and moved away, holding his other hand to his side while the other still covered the hole with the Zat gun. Jack kept one eye on the Jaf'far and the other on the hole, knowing something was probably going to happen.

He was tempted to let off another grenade but a zat gun would do. He fired down into the whole and heard a groan and then the rustling stopped altogether. Jack grabbed another branch and had it dissolve in his hand. Wiping off the mess in his hand he grabbed another and threw it into the hole. There was no reaction.

Risking his head, the Colonel glanced quickly into the hole and saw a dim outline against the grass. He took a longer look and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the hole he saw the patches of an SGC team, whichever one it was he didn't know.

* Jesus. I shot one of our own. *

"Daniel. Dial it up again. We need a rescue team here ASAP."

******

The briefing room was far from crowded with only Teal'c, Jack and the General in it. They were all looking at a pile of clothing, weapons and tools that sat in the centre of the table. The Jaf'far picked up the jacket and displayed the unit patch on the side. In every way it was identical to the SGC patch except for a smaller patch an inch lower on the arm. It was a small black 'B' with a 3 under it.

"He's not SGC, sir."

Janet Frasier walked into the room with Major Davis following behind her. The doctor was very sure of her statement and put down a series of folders onto the briefing table. Handing a couple of them to Daniel and Jack, she continued.

"When he came in we found three wounds consistent with staff weapon blasts along with four bullet wounds. He also seemed to have several broken bones, which would have occurred due to the fall into the hole. Between all the injuries sustained and the blood loss he should have died. But he didn't. In fact preliminary tests indicate that he has some form of virus which is helping to keep him alive."

General Hammond looked up at the doctor from his seat at the head of the table. Nearly every time that he heard the word 'virus' come from Doctor Frasier's mouth, dire news came after. Since the facility had been reactivated he had ordered the SGC closed down a handful of times because of WILDFIRE calls to the President.

"Before you ask sir you'll be happy to know that it isn't any danger to the SGC."

Turning on the large briefing screen, she showed them a slide of what looked like weird red jellyfish floating around in a darker red substance.

"From what we have been able to find out this virus its naquada based. It's prevalent in the muscles and blood of the patient and seems to be quite fragile. Our first batch of tests indicates that it can't live outside the host for more than a second or so. If it were to be passed on you would need a blood transfusion from the patient or sexual contact. Transmission density would..."

The Colonel raised his eyebrows and she took the hint.

"It's the amount of virus that has to be transferred across to another person for the virus to take hold. In this case it's a lot higher than most of our own Earth viruses. Also there are some peculiarities."

The General sighed and could already feel the need to take some Tylenol and call the President.

"Because the virus is naquada based it attaches itself to the red blood corpuscles and feeds off the iron stored within. It also seems to convert the glucose in the blood to a slightly volatile form of carbohydrate. In turn these new improved red corpuscles seem to reduce pain and increase the body's ability to heal itself at an exponential rate as well as giving him increased resistance to other viral and bacterial infections. The drawbacks are that this new glucose will combust if exposed to medium to high levels of UV radiation and he needs regular doses of iron supplement."

"You mean the he burns if he goes into the sun. What is he? Some sort of vampire?"

Janet smiled when she heard the joke. Tossing pair of tubes over to the Colonel, she continued the briefing.

"There are a disease called xeroderma pigmentosym but sufferers have a severe reaction to sunlight which triggers massive outbursts of cancer. But that is a genetic disorder. This is something different altogether."

Jack shook his head. When Janet started explaining things she got as bad as Carter and started using all the big words. He rolled the tubes around in his hands and stopped. A really bad thought occurred to him.

"What are these?"

"One is a highly advanced form of sunblock. It can be spread on the body everyday without any harmful effects. It also leaves no greasy residue or smell, which is even better. For someone suffering from this virus, that is a way for them to live an almost normal life. The other is a paste I would hesitate to call food. I had it analysed and it seems to be seaweed with added vitamins."

"Seaweed."

"Yes, Colonel, seaweed. From what I can see it reinforces the haemoglobin in the blood. To be absolutely sure we would have to ask him ourselves."

The General nodded and thanked the doctor but she went on.

"I asked Major Davis, our Pentagon liaison, to check out something that we found embedded in the shoulder wound."

Handing over a small plastic sampling bag to the General, she waited for him to see its contents before continuing. She watched his face as he realised what he had in his hands.

"These are US Army dog tags."

Major Davis caught Janet's eye with a wave and took over the briefing.

"Actually, sir, they aren't. From what we were able to find out is that the tags have SGC markings, not US Army. We weren't able to get a lot off of one tag alone but the two gave us a name and birth date."

Davis began rifling through papers in front of him and handed across sheets of photocopies to everyone sitting down. Jack took the second to last sheet and looked at the information. It was a blurry passport photo with English and some other language above each sentence. Ignoring that for a second he examined the picture, trying to compare that face with the one that he had helped carry back to the base only a short time ago. Davis continued.

"I had the NID check the Social Security files for the name and date and came up blank. Then I asked them to check Visa applications and we hit the jackpot. Sort of."

"What do you mean? And what is this language? Are we looking at another country that has access to a Stargate?"

"I can safely say that there is no possibility that it is another country because that person is dead. About two months after that Visa application was filed John Kelly and his entire family died in a car crash."

George Hammond was getting pissed off. Correction, he was pissed off and it was starting to show.

"General. I asked NID to do a check on the accident and see if there was something weird but they came up empty handed. All the autopsy records check out as well as the relatives. Anything short of digging up the bodies was done and it all checks out. John Kelly is dead."

"Then who the hell is down in the infirmary?"

Jack raised his hand as an idea began to form.

"Did anyone check the bottom of that hole for one of..."

An alarm started to blare, cutting the Colonel off in mid-epiphany.

"Security to the Infirmary. Repeat security to the Infirmary. Code Two."

The General shot out of his seat and ran for the phone mounted to the wall.

"This is General Hammond. What's the problem?"

"Sir. The prisoner in the infirmary woke up and knocked out the guards and took two nurses hostage in Doctor Frasier's office. From what we know, he has both of the guard's sidearms."

******

Carrie Whitman was, in her own words, scared shitless. She had begun to check temperatures and heart rate, entering every measurement into the patients' charts, Major Carter's first, when she had heard a sound from the end of the ward, where the unidentified soldier was. She had listened for a second, to try and pin down what had made it but had heard nothing else. She had looked over to her friend Annie Jennings who was filling up medical supplies for a SG team.

Taking two more steps all she saw was the sheet covering his sleeping body fly into the air and the room spin, seeing first the wall, then the ceiling and then the floor. She remembered hitting the floor and everything went dim for a second. Muted shouts echoed from behind her, a place she couldn't look back at for the moment. Two more thumps sounded and a scream, then someone grabbed her, throwing her in through the door of the Infirmary and into the CMO's office.

Someone helped her to her feet and pulled her away from the door. A voice was speaking slowly, ordering something done. As if a veil was lifted the voice went from nonsensical to something she could understand. Lifting her head she saw Annie standing against the wall, a look of horror on her face.

Following the direction of her friend's gaze, she screamed when she saw the unidentified soldier. He had only a pair of boxers on, the rest of his body covered with bandages that were already beginning to pink with blood. More blood streaked from his mouth and he swallowed it back, lurching slightly on his feet. Carrie stopped screaming and her caring side kicked in. If a patient, any patient was losing that much blood, then he was dying. She got to her feet slowly and froze when he raised a gun, pointing it at her face.

The unsteadiness disappeared and he wiped his mouth. Blood soaked his empty hand up to the wrist and she now saw how his mouth had filled with blood. She screamed louder than before as he ripped open another bag of plasma and bit into it.

******

Samantha Carter woke to the sound of grunts and cries of pain. She dismissed them for half a second before swinging out of bed and onto the floor. Falling to the ground as her balance and legs went from under her, she only caught a glimpse of Janet's door being slammed shut. The sound made her head ring with renewed agony.

Crawling forward was hell mainly because she had to concentrate on keeping lunch, dinner and breakfast from coming up the wrong way. Raising her head slowly she could see the prostrate bodies of two airmen, their backs rising and falling with a deep rhythm.

* At least they're alive. Wish I were in the same state. *

It took another two minutes to get to the phone and whisper a weak 'help' into the mouthpiece. Her good deed done for the day, she collapsed to the floor sinking back into blissful darkness. The last thing she thought she heard was someone shouting her name.

******

Daniel managed to get there first. He'd been going over his few notes from P3X-921 and come up with sweet nothing. Scouring through what little was known about the Inca and Aztec peoples had still drawn a blank. The only thing left to do was go insane with trying to find a reason for the buildings, or go visit Sam in the Infirmary. The Major, his friend for over three years, had been diagnosed as having concussion and was spending the night in his 'home from home' as Jack called it

Of course as soon as he would walk in the door, the nurses would start ragging him. They'd got the habit from Jack with one of his 'harem' jokes. His friend had walked in when his appendix stitches were being checked and he had said something like

"You do know that there's a pool saying you don't get any. Wait 'till I disappoint them all."

He could remember the nurses going bright red and then laugh their asses off. He had just gone beet red and grabbed the bed sheets, pulling them up around his neck. That had only made them laugh louder. Shaking his head he took the last step into the corridor that fed into the Infirmary and saw Sam fall to the ground just as the alarm started to blare.

"SAM!"

He ran forward and grabbed his teammate and friend, turning her over to check her pulse. It was strong but Daniel didn't care. He lifted her as best he could and went to pull her back over to her bed. And then he saw the two guards and heard the announcement. He didn't need any other recommendation. Throwing his friend into a joke of a fireman's lift he carried her out of the room to the end of the corridor. The security arrived just as he made the turn, its senior officer Captain Briggs ahead of the bunch.

"Doctor Jackson. What's happening?"

"There are two of your men down. I didn't check them, just grabbed the Major and ran."

Jack and the General ran up and Daniel repeated his story as the security slowly made it's way down the corridor under the direction of their Captain. As the men moved slowly, all their guns pointing at the doorway to the Infirmary, Janet arrived and took Sam into her care. Daniel shut up and followed her movements, breathing again when he saw a satisfied smile on the small woman's lips. Turning his attention back to the Infirmary he managed to see a foot swing into view for all of a second. The team stopped and braced themselves. It took a second for what they saw to sink in. The shoe moved back and forth on the ground, dragging the toe. The young archaeologist had a flashback and called out.

"It's one of the guards!"

Jack clamped his hand down on his friend's shoulder. The security team moved forward again, running the last few feet. Two of the men threw themselves into the room, landing in between two of the beds. The rest of the team followed sweeping the room, ready to fire at the least provocation.

They got none.

A scream cut through the silence and all of the guns focused on the only other door in the Infirmary. Moving slowly forward, the team flanked the door. One of the men knelt and reached out slowly towards the doorknob and his team mates hefted their guns, ready to spray any target that presented itself as a danger. His hand had barely touched the door when a single shot went off cutting a hole in the top of the door. Splinters of wood and dust showered the men and a voice called out to them.

"I can hear you out there. I know how many of you there are and how your boy is going to open the door. I can guarantee you that if you touch the door, I can take some of you down easy, the rest hard."

Another shot rang out, clipping the leg of one of the security team. He keeled over, swearing as he dropped his gun and clasped his hands to his wound. Then another shot and another man went down cursing, holding his leg as blood began to stain his combat trousers.

"I have two full magazines in here for each gun. Back off and we can talk."

The General and Jack were inside the room now and caught the last of the demand. Nodding to Briggs, he motioned for him to leave. The Captain shook his head and whispered to the General.

"Sir. We should stay in case this is a trick."

Jack nodded at the request and the General relented.

"I don't know how he can see us out here but for the moment you can stay outside the Infirmary. If there is any problem you'll know when to come back in."

With that angle covered the General stepped forward just as Teal'c entered the room with a zat gun in hand. He positioned himself behind the older man, keeping the weapon hidden from the door and still keeping it at the ready. At this stage, the General knew, arguing about the weapon's presence would be futile.

* Better safe than sorry. *

"This is General Hammond. I command this base. Who are you and what do you want?"

"Hammond. You can't be. You're dead!"

The door opened a crack and Teal'c moved, shoving the General aside and firing the alien weapon. A cry of pain roared out from the unknown soldier as the blue energy coursed into him. He shuddered in pain and dropped the gun as his nerves went on fire for a few seconds. Teal'c ran forward and smashed the door open, clipping the soldier's side and knocking him back against the far wall. His eyes focused on the Jaf'far for a second and then rolled back into his head.

******

The next time he woke, John Kelly was in a haze of drugs. A whole cow's worth of leather straps tied him down to a gurney and two really big soldiers with drawn guns were watching over him. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a shoulder on each side of the open Infirmary door. Flexing his muscles against the straps he only made the two men inside a little more alert.

Closing his eyes again he relaxed and tried to remember what had happened before. With his kind, waking up hungry was not a pleasant experience. The need for 'food' was paramount and usually overrode every other instinct in his body. If he had been in the field he'd have taken a gunge tube and everything would be fine and dandy. He snapped his eyes opened again as he remembered something. And saw the doctor injecting something into his arm. He managed to whisper before the darkness claimed him.

"Hammond."

******

Janet had spent the last three hours fixing up the four newest patients to the Infirmary. The two that 'John Kelly' had shot were already released with orders to take it easy.

* As if they really will. *

The worst bit of it was her office. After the two nurses had walked out under their own power she had taken a little look in. Her desk was standing on one end just behind the door. Everything that had been on its surface was strewn over the floor, torn and covered with dirty great boot marks.

* All that paper work. *

Her train of thought disappeared in half a second when she saw what covered the floor of one corner. Blood was splashed liberally onto the grey wall and carpeted floor. Over by a cooler unit a pair of near empty plasma bags still dripped their contents onto the floor, staining it a deep dark red. Nausea kicked in and she had to step back out of the room. It had taken another ten minutes before she could trust herself to talk and call down the janitorial services to clean the place up.

*Now I know why the girls weren't talking. *

The two were, by now, sitting down in the Mess Hall drinking coffee and probably alcohol. Given the choice, she'd be down there with them. Getting her mind off the blood was easy, she just took care of Sam, who was still out for the count. The Major was sleeping which was all right but for a moment Janet had feared that her friend had slipped into a coma with all her. She heard leather creak and flinched.

After 'Kelly' had collapsed, a pair from the security team had waded into the office and went to drag him down to the brig. They had knocked him facedown to the ground and began to slap cuffs on him when one of his bandages came off. It had exposed the worst of his wounds, an overlapping hit in his upper chest. Even though this miracle virus had all but healed him, this wound had still been bad enough to kill him. Blood had literally poured from the wound, spilling onto both of the soldiers. It didn't stop them from cuffing him and that had pissed Janet off.

She had the cuffs off in seconds and the unknown strapped down to a gurney. They were the same straps that had been used on Apophis during his brief stay and were probably strong enough to hold this guy down. Another creak of leather sounded and she saw the two guards stand up a little straighter. She flinched again but managed to walk over to the bed. She saw that whatever the virus was in could make short work of the sedative already in him. Taking out a prefilled syringe she swabbed his arm and injected the drug. She barley heard the word that escaped his lips before the sedative kicked in.

"Hammond."

******

Jack started off straight away.

"That was fun."

Captain Briggs would have glared at Jack except for the two rank difference. That, however, didn't stop the General.

"Colonel..."

"Yes, sir. Sorry."

The tone of the Colonel's voice suggested that he was far from sorry, that and the grin on his face.

"Colonel. I should remind you that there is little to be happy about. We have possibly another camp of Apophis' Jaf'far out there posing as SGC personnel. With that in mind I am ordering SG-6 to stand ready for a return to P3X-921."

Jack's grin melted off his face. He hadn't considered the possibility at all. But one thing bothered him.

"Sir, just one question. If you were going to infiltrate a base wouldn't you use someone who could speak the language without an accent? And at least give him the right gear? I mean just looking at what he was wearing, and what he was carrying, he wouldn't have got past the Gate Room."

"What do you suggest, Colonel?"

"That SG-6 go ahead a planned but only as for a recon mission, nothing more. If they see a training camp they return and we'll think about what to do next."

The two men knew exactly what would happen. The Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs would authorise the use of a nuclear weapon. But that would have to wait until proof of a training camp was found.

"Agreed. In the meantime I want four men on our guest until I say otherwise. Is that understood, Captain?"

"Sir, yes, sir."

The General walked off with Jack following but a shout from the Infirmary stopped them dead in their tracks. Doctor Frasier ran out of her domain.

"General. I'm sorry to bother you but the patient spoke your name again."

"Can I speak to him?"

She shook her head.

"Alright, doctor. If possible I want that man conscious for me when SG-6 return. Then he can answer some questions."


******

24 HOURS LATER.

"I saw your body."

It wasn't exactly what the General was used to hearing as an opening statement but he went on anyway. The Infirmary was quiet with only SG-1 and the General present. Moving his head as best he could Kelly could see the doctor who had sedated him and two guards. The old man asked him a question again, dragging his attention back.

"Who are you?"

"Kelly, John Xavier. Stargate Command, Stargate Company 5, Blood Unit."

Shaking his head, George replied in a quiet tone.

"Son, this is the SGC and we have never heard of you. Now who are you?"

All the General got was a whole lot of silence. It threatened when a knock on the door distracted him. Kelly looked up to see a medium sized good-looking blonde with a bunch of photos in her hand.

"General. Can I have a word with you for a minute?"

Waving the doctor and the guards back into the room, he walked out with the scientific mind of SG-1. He glanced at the material in her hand and saw only a blurry picture.

"What is it Major?"

Wordlessly, she handed him a picture and then another. The first was a blur surrounded by a load of green lines running along both sides. It took a second to realise that the lines were plant life, some sort of bamboo and that the blur was a shadowed stone wall of some sort. There was a shape in the middle, not too different in colour from the rest of the wall's surface. Something about the shape rang bells in his memory and then he saw the second picture.

A quantum mirror.

For a second he saw the face of Doctor Carter floating in front of him as the effects of this universe began to tear her apart.

"General. I think he could be from an alternate Earth but we can't be sure."

"What do you mean Major?"

"Well sir. The medic that pulled him from the hole remembers seeing a strange black stone embedded in the wall and was out of sight from the top of the hole. He said he would have mentioned it but he had been too busy with the patient. I had a probe sent back and it took these."

She shook her head and grimaced with the stab of pain that it had caused. Janet had told her to go home hours ago but this had come up. It hadn't taken long to run the image-enhancer on the probe's picture once she had recognised the shape but it had taken its toll.

"Major. I want you to take twenty-four hours off and get some rest. That is an order."

"Yes, sir."

The General smiled at the relief in Sam's eyes. The General nodded a thank you to the Major for her work and returned to Kelly's bedside with the photos in hand.

"What was your mission on P3X-921?"

John's lips tightened to a thin white line.

"I know that you don't believe that this is the SGC and I'll allow for that. But you shot two of my people and took another two as hostages. Now answer my question!"

"We were there to destroy a Goa'uld's resupply bases."

Hammond was puzzled. From Teal'c's report the guards that had been killed were serpent guards but that they, in all probability, hadn't been reinforced in some time.

"We did a search of the immediate area and found nothing that indicates the presence of a goa'uld base."

Shaking his head despite the restraints, Kelly answered.

"Our recon team found it about ten miles north-north-west of the Stargate. The majority of the Jaf'far stay below to mind the supplies. We were sent in with plasma bombs and we ran into the outer perimeter. We did the job and then we ran in to these others and everything went to crap. We triggered the timers on our bombs and ran for it. I was the only one to get to the Stargate and then I got hit by a couple of guards. I don't know why the bombs didn't go off."

John could see the disbelief on the General's face and frankly didn't give a damn. He was tired and hungry and pissed off.

"General. I'm sorry about your people but you know when my kind get hungry our instinct to feed takes over."

"What kind is that?"

Now it was John's turn to be puzzled.

"Vampyr."

******

The General's first reaction was to laugh at the stupidity of the answer. He didn't know whether to have this man committed to an asylum or just stick him in a jail.

Belief was not an option here.

But then again, he was commander of a base where you could take ten steps and be a couple of billion miles away a second later. He had spoken with little green men and negotiated with parasitic worms. What mattered now was finding out about the base that two of his SG teams had missed.

He raised the picture of the quantum mirror and showed it to the prisoner. The reaction was exactly what he wanted.

"Not one of those things."

Smiling now, the General nodded.

"Could you tell me what it is?"

"It's exactly what it looks like. A quantum reality mirror."

"You were found lying on it when we pulled you out of the hole. What we would like to know is why you didn't go back through it."

The prisoner closed his eyes and sighed.

"The mirror usually has a device which allows you to tune into different realities. But if the device is left alone for a while the mirror locks into one reality and stays there, a permanent bridge, until someone comes along and retunes it. But if the hand device is broken, the mirror stays focused on that one reality. And in my reality the mirror was destroyed."

"How?"

"When we blew the base we blew everything within a thirty mile radius. We had to."

"Can you describe the base?"

"Yes, sir. I can."

******

Briggs wasn't too happy about letting the prisoner out of the Infirmary with only two guards but he was new to the SGC. If he had listened to his predecessor's advice he would have known not to question the General's orders. As it was he got a worse than usual ass chewing and left it at that.

John dressed in a pair of overalls, moving slowly so as not to aggravate his wounds. They weren't too bad now, the worst being the double chest wound. For a few minutes he could remember breathing blood but that had happened before. It was nothing new.

The two guards walked him through the corridors towards the observation/conference room above the control room. The complex was much the same as his except a lot less crowded. But it appeared to be as busy. In the last two hours he had heard the gate activate twice and only once had been an incoming wormhole. When the goa'uld had hit Earth, the SGC had become the focus of every nations Special Forces Command and 'business', as such, had picked up. For a second he felt homesick, missing the voices of a dozen different languages being spoken within this complex.

He was still deep in thought, reminiscing about his home, when the escort turned the last corner to their destination. The smell hit him almost instantly.

Goa'uld.

Straining his hearing as much as he could the double tones of a goa'uld became instantly recognisable. In reflex he bowed his head and tensed. The guards got half a second's warning before he stopped still and swung both his fists back at groin level. The jarring force of the impact tore at his wound as he twisted around and kneed the first guard in the face, then pushed the other headfirst into the wall. A shout from the end of the hall told him he had only seconds to act.

He stooped and grabbed the side arms of both men, knocking off the safeties as he stood again. Breathing deeply for a second he ran in the door and aimed his guns at the first body that gave off the stench of goa'uld.

General Jacob Carter, the commander of the George S. Hammond Stargate Support Base.

******

For half a second he hesitated and then remembered where he was. Bringing the guns up he aimed both guns at the Goa'uld's left eye and started to squeeze the trigger.

"ATTENTION."

Jack's voice echoed through the room and John blinked long enough for two more of Briggs boys to charge into the room and tackle the 'Vampyr'. Teal'c moved forward to help subdue the prisoner and got a face full of soldier, thrown from the floor by the enraged man.

"YOU GOA'ULD BASTARDS!"

The second guard went flying and landed on the conference table with a crack as his leg broke. Jack bounded over his body and jumped, aiming himself at the Vampyr. It only got him a slap on the head and a punch in the stomach. Sam ended the fight, grabbing a zat from a shocked Tok'ra and firing it at John, knocking him to the ground.

Teal'c and Jack got up and secured the Vampyr, bending his arms behind his back and knocking him to his knees.

"Colonel. Take this man to the brig."

The General turned to the two Tok'ra and nodded his head in apology.

"Selmak, I am truly sorry for this unfortunate incident. But we wanted to make you aware of the Goa'uld base that might be present on P3X-921."

The double toned voice of a Goa'uld took over.

"The Tok'ra are not aware of such a base, General. But the possible existence of such makes a reconnaissance mission advisable."

"I agree. In this case I would like a member of the Tok'ra to go along with one of our SG teams."

The Tok'ra bowed his head and when he looked at the General again his voice was that of a normal human.

"Selmak couldn't agree more, George. Unfortunately I'm too long in the tooth to go along but I know some of the Tok'ra that will go."

"When did you take the General?"

Everyone looked at the struggling prisoner as he got to his feet. From the looks on the faces of Jack and Teal'c they were throwing all their weight on the injured man and he was still getting up. A line of sweat on a pale face was the only indication that he was in any pain.

"I asked when did you take the General."

Jacob shook his head.

"It was my choice, a bit rushed but I don't regret it."

Jacob ducked his head and shivered before raising it again.

"We are not of the Goa'uld and we do not support the System Lords."

John smiled sardonically. A half dozen guards ran into the room, heavily armed and, after looking at their fallen comrades, looking for trouble. John's smile grew wider and a lot less friendly.

"I can smell the snake in your head. End of story."

"Release him."

The double tones of Selmak shocked everyone.

"I don't think that's wise, Selmak."

"If this one is to trust us then we should let him ask questions of the Tok'ra and the Tau'ri."

The two members of SG-1 let John go reluctantly. It wasn't hard to spot that both men remained tense and ready to grab their former prisoner at a moment's notice.

Keeping an eye on the Tok'ra, John sat down on the far end of the conference table.

"Who are the Tok'ra?"

Samantha Carter spoke before her father could answer.

"They are like the Goa'uld in that they are of the same species. But they don't take unwilling hosts like the Goa'uld. And they are our allies. Haven't you met any Tok'ra before?"

"Standing Order One: Kill all Goa'uld. The option for capture is left open to the Team leaders."

The sneer on his face told them how often the capture order was used.

The two Generals went to speak at the same time and Jacob deferred to his host.

"How many Goa'uld have you run into?"

"A lot. And we've killed most of the ones we've found."

Daniel held up his hand.

"I just wanted to ask. How are the Irish involved in the Stargate program?"

"After Apophis hit Earth and got captured, the United Nations was disbanded and the Council took over. The Unified Earth Defence Command took over the SGC and all Special Forces Commands came under the Stargate Program. Since then over forty thousand soldiers have gone through the Stargate, waging full scale war against the Goa'uld."

"When did the Goa'uld hit Earth?"

"About two years ago now. They came in two ships and hit most of the major cities. China was the only country able to respond with nuclear weapons and managed to damage one of the ships. China is now a wasteland. We thought we had a chance against one ship and then Ammonet arrived with two more and things went to shit.

They hit practically every city with a population over five million. In the space of a day, one day, there was over a billion and a half people dead. And then they landed.

Apophis landed on the SGC and killed at least half of the personnel. On the way he hit Air Force One and every other plane in the sky. The air force vanished in half an hour. Ammonet landed in China and started to kill anything that moved in Asia. She targeted tectonic fault lines and started massive earthquakes.

And Klorel landed in Ireland for his start on Europe. He dropped out of the sky in one of those pyramid ships and fired a couple of plasma shots into Dublin, killing thousands, my adopted family among them."

John closed his eyes as the memory of that day played in his mind again. But this time he decided to speak about it.

******

They'd picked out this empty field to test their new bikes because the cops couldn't get their cars in there easily. There was a shopping centre to one side and a McDonalds to the other, clear avenues for escape if the pigs did come though. Anto and Dave, the Jonson twins and his cousins by adoption, were running their bikes at full revs, ripping the field apart with their tires. The real fast stuff had started as soon as the brother's three sisters had fecked off to the shopping centre for their daily binge of staring at clothes.

I was due to get my 'new' bike in two weeks, courtesy of a mate who didn't want any questions of previous ownership to come up. It may not be legal but it was cheaper than paying some bastard 'bike dealer a couple of grand more for a half-decent piece of shite.

Dave had just handed the bike over to me for my go when the first explosion sounded. In a city like Dublin, growing at an exponential rate due to an economic boom, big noises are just another noise. It wasn't until the pillars of smoke started appearing from all over the place that we were actually worried. If there was some trouble like a fire the cops would decent from the rafters and we'd have to disappear.

And then the shopping centre went up in flame and noise and smoke. I turned with my cousins and saw a couple of weird aeroplanes strafe the roof and car parks of the Blanchardstown Centre, caving in the glass roof with this run. A piece of my mind pictured the people standing under all that reinforced glass, getting cut to shreds. I had seen a friend go through a window before and I knew what glass could do to a body. This stuff was twice, three times, heavier and falling fifty feet.

The aeroplanes came back again and strafed the car park in front of us. They weren't going that fast and we could see that they weren't like anything we had ever seen. They fired some sort of yellow streak of fire that wasn't any missile or bullet but every shot was hitting a target and ripping it apart. A blue Volvo seemed to kiss the sky as it flew a hundred feet into the air propelled by it's own petrol tank. Another car and then another blew and then we realised that one craft's path of destruction was coming right for us.

We were all Vampyr. The brothers were clan born, raised by Vampyr and born into the clan. I had been 'made' by one of their cousins after my family had died because of one of their cousins. It had been an accident but they took care of their accidents. And because we were what we were, we could do a lot of things. Some of us were smarter, faster or stronger than others of our kind.

I was faster.

The two brothers took off, making for the edges of the field and cover of the trees there. I ran for the shopping centre and under the oncoming aircraft. For a second I knew it would be touch and go but I knew that they wouldn't be able to fire on me once they had flown overhead. And anyway, the smoke from the fires was better cover from the craft than the trees would ever be. A few seconds later I heard the bikes engines come up behind me as the brothers came to the same conclusion.

The two slowed to my pace and we made straight for the entrance to the Centre. I risked one quick glance behind me and saw the craft swing about, searching for us. There was an even chance it would find us in the open but we were out of sight now. Safe, if you could call it that.

And then we looked around.

There were bodies in bits all over the place. It was dark but we could see well enough and, even worse, we could smell the blood. Between the glass coming down and the explosions the better part of five hundred people died badly in the Centre. The two or three hundred left were all in shock or dying. We just stood there and people walked by us with blood streaming down their faces, others without a scratch and even one woman walked by with only one arm.

We just stood there.

A couple more people went by us and then we heard more sort of crackling explosions. I saw a couple of people drop where they stood as the craft opened fire again and then I realised something.

The fire came from the ground.

I took one look outside and saw these freaky looking guys with big serpent heads coming straight for us. One of them saw me and let off a shot from some staff type weapon. I just ducked and ran. The two brothers had different ideas. They both gunned their bikes and shot off out the way we had come in and made for the road. Dave made it about ten yards and had the front wheel shot from under him.

Anto turned around and went for these guys. He aimed his bike at one and jumped before it hit. The guy, a Jaf'far, didn't even move out of the way. The rest of the Jaf'far opened up on the brothers and just managed to miss. And I went nuts.

It's a family thing. The Kelly Temper is fairly well known but coupled with the Vampyr Rage, I was a walking natural disaster. For the first few months after being 'made' I worked my anger out on weights, lifting my body weight in hundreds of repetitions. I saw these fuckers attacking the only family I had and grabbed a piece of metal and I really, really lost it.

I killed the three remaining Jaf'far and had to be dragged off their bodies. When I calmed down we went looking for Dave and Anto's sisters and found them. They'd been sitting on a bench not too far inside the doors. Between a blast from the craft's weapons and the glass it was hard to tell them apart but we knew their scent. We went back outside to the Jaf'far bodies and once we had calmed down we carried the girls out, stole a car and took them home.

About an hour after we got home I found out that my family was dead, another cousin having seen their car go up when another of those craft shot it up. A good few of the clan were dead, just a few out of the hundred odd thousand that died that day. But when we saw that pyramid thing drop from the sky we knew exactly what to do.

******

Jack snorted in disbelief.

"You attacked their ship."

John looked at everyone in the room, including the two new guards that had been shepherded in by a young looking captain.

"As I said, pound for pound, Vampyr are easily twice as strong as an average human. That goes double for speed. Our senses of taste, smell and sight border on the animal. And when we get angry we enter a beserker rage. All in all, any Jaf'far that crossed our path died. We caught Klorel and kicked the shit out of him."

"When you break the arms and legs of a person they cough up all sorts of information, so we used transport rings to hit the other two ships on the ground and the one in orbit. We had a few people from the Irish Army and the Garda Special Branch with us so we were armed this time.

"When we hit Apophis he was just after killing General Hammond, my General Hammond, and most of the other captured personnel. We didn't bother taking him captive, we just killed him. Ammonet got wise and entered orbit. She tried to bomb us but the damaged ship in orbit was used to attack her. She ran for it."

"Since then we've spent the time helping as many of the survivors as we can and getting ready for the next attack. We're using the captured technology to expand our technological base and so far it's working. NORAD was shut down and the SGC was expanded with a couple of support bases."

"Do you know what happened with the other personnel at the SGC?"

"If you mean SG-1...?"

Jack's enthusiasm died in half a second at the look he got from the Vampyr.

"Yeah."

"Overall command of the SGC is in the hands of Jack O'Neill, retired Colonel US Air Force. Research and Development Division is under the joint heading of Colonel Samantha Carter O'Neill."

Jack and Sam traded a look that said 'not now and not again'. Selmak spared them from any further embarrassment.

"If the base is of the standard type use by the Goa'uld there should be..."

He stopped speaking when a small laugh came from the end of the table.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Tok'ra, but the base is not Goa'uld 'standard'. A human designed it. A human from Earth."

General Hammond stood in disbelief.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"When Apophis' invasion failed we found evidence that there were other Goa'uld on Earth. These had been around for millennia, left behind accidentally or deliberately exiled. One of the worst cases a Goa'uld who had founded a cult. Once he saw the newscasts of the pyramid ships he used his people to try and steal one."

Jacob's eyes lit up as Selmak took over. In his double toned voice he spoke one word.

"Setesh."

"Yeah. Seth or Setesh or whatever the hell you want to call him. We ran into him here too."

The General thought for a second on what he had just heard and something clicked. Kelly had said 'one of the worst cases. The 'one' was a slip, intentional or not it posed further questions.

"So I take it that he wasn't the only one."

"No. The attempt on the pyramid scared people enough that everyone and I mean everyone got examined for infestation. In the process the CIA, NID, MOSSAD, DGSE and the KGB, to name a few, were reorganised. It was discovered that those Agencies were tailored to support each other with information that would aid those Goa'uld still on Earth."

The General started to feel interested in what this man was saying but there was still a cloud of doubt shadowing everything that he heard. There was one way to clear that doubt.

"Do you have names?"

"The men are some of the founders of the OSS and later the CIA. I never heard their names but I heard that they kept their hands in the 'business' as such. As far as I know all of them stayed out of the public eye but when the Stargate program became active they had to follow its progress. Once the NID people were flipped over the rest soon followed. All in all about a dozen were found but we were told a few others had escaped with Ammonet. To stay alive they started to help her set up a power base based on Earth techniques. With captured members of the SGC as other hosts she has a couple of nice programs going."

The General frowned. John's response had been smart and not answered his question.

"Do you know the positions that these people held in your world?"

John's frown matched the General's. If push came to shove, he'd screw over every single hidden Goa'uld that this world might have but these Tok'ra still bothered him.

"I'll tell you when these are out of the room."

With almost a snarl the General pointed his finger at John.

"I might remind you that you are not a guest here and that these people are. Furthermore they are our allies..."

"And I suppose they've never fucked you over? Or lied to you? Deliberately and to your face? As far as I am concerned, Sir, and with all due respect, these are Goa'uld until I say otherwise. And that means I don't say a word until these snake heads leave."

The General stood and nearly lost control of his temper. He glanced at the two new guards by the doorway and they ran forward to take the prisoner to a holding cell. John held up his hand.

"One thing General? How much do you trust these snakeheads? Especially this one."

John pointed to Jacob/Selmak.

"I've known Jacob Carter for over forty years. I trust him with my life."

"Fine. Then do me a favour and reach in under the table, at the seat where he sat. You'll find a bump in the wood about twenty centimetres in. If you use a knife it'll come off easy."

One of the soldiers knelt under the table at a gesture from the General and felt around. A few seconds later there was a scraping sound and he came out holding a very slim greyish white circle. It wasn't hard to see the thin lines of circuitry etched in the top surface.

"If you search your lifelong bosom buddy or his friend you'll find a recording device or a listening device. In short they probably regard any and all of their kind, their business and no one else's. And sir, with all due respect, you can go take a flying fuck at a rolling fucking doughnut before I say ANOTHER FUCKING WORD."

Grabbing both of the guards by the shoulders he marched them out of the room and down towards the brig. Briggs appeared at the door to stop his men being led by the hand and got shouted at for his trouble.

"OUT OF THE FUCKING WAY, TOE RAG!"

Teal'c just raised his eyebrow while everyone stared at the Tok'ra.

******

John sat back in the bed and took the cap off one of his gunge tubes. The foul smelling green paste didn't any more appetising than the first time he had stared at it nearly a year ago. He nearly sighed before he caught himself. Thinking about home wouldn't help him any in this situation.

* I've been halfway across a galaxy and now I'm on Earth. But I'm still a universe away from home. *

A low frequency hum caught his attention and he looked about before he caught sight of the camera in the corner. He thought for a second about doing something to it and thought again. If this was a real cell then they had at least a few more but better hidden cameras in here with him. Smearing one wouldn't do him any good.

* But what the hell. It'd be something to pass the time.

He took the pillows off the bed and sat them up lengthways. Sitting back he closed his eyes and began to breathe slowly. With each breath he relaxed and began to listen, hearing all the little things he usually ignored or had trained himself to ignore. The sounds started to filter in.

The creak of leather as one of the guards outside moved.

The sound of the security camera focusing.

The heartbeats of the guards outside.

The hum of electricity as the current buzzed through wiring.

John turned his head slightly to follow the path of the last noise. There was conduit running the length of the room behind the skirting board but that wouldn't be a feasible place to hide listening devices. Most of what you'd pick up would be footsteps and furniture moving. He began to breathe again but this time made his breathing louder, easily heard by those listening.

******

George Hammond could not remember the last time he had had a genuine smile on his face. Ever since this John Kelly had arrived, the crap had hit the fan. First he said he was a vampire, then he says that there a few dozen Goa'uld on this planet running the Intelligence capacities of the planet and now the Tok'ra were actively spying on them.

"Tell me why, Jacob."

Double tones answered him.

"The Tok'ra have been fighting the Goa'uld for centuries and are used to their ways. We have fought this war alone and without the aid of any others. And we are set in our ways. I must apologise for our deception, General Hammond, but the mention of Goa'uld presence on Earth set off an old prejudice that has been with me for two millennia."

The General had no doubt that what the Tok'ra had said was true but he shook his head anyway.

"You know that what you have done has harmed the people who supported the treaty that lies between us. In doing what you did the men who opposed the alliance between our peoples will now feel justified in using any action to aid their cause. Including the possibility of starting the theft of technology from the Tollan, the Nox and the Asguard again. And that would damage our credibility with their people."

"And Jacob knows that I will have to report your actions to the President. How do you think that he will react when he finds out that a human host was party to spying on the SGC?"

Jacob broke in and the impassive face that the symbiote had held broke down to show a very worried man.

"George. You know that I have been with these people for some time now and I support every decision that they have made. I know that what we have done here was wrong and we are sorry for it but..."

Jacob held his hand up, palm facing the ceiling. The gesture was one of helplessness. Both generals knew from working in NATO commands that allies always spied on one another. But this was something else. The trust between the Tok'ra and the people of Earth had always been fragile at best. Even though there was a treaty between the two races, people like Colonel O'Neill weren't afraid to voice their concern over the selective memory of the Tok'ra. And an incident like that of the use of the power gauntlets didn't help their case any more.

A knock on the General's door broke the silence between the two. Jack poked his head in.

"Sorry to bother you sir but I thought you might like to see something."

The two men followed the Colonel out to the command room where the other members of SG-1 were watching a TV monitor. As the face of the monitor came into view they could see that it showed an almost painted surface. It was as if someone had dragged a brush of green paint across the top of the lens and back across the bottom.

"What the hell is this?"

The General's mood was bad after the conversation with what he thought was his old friend. Sam jumped in to try and calm him down.

"Sir this is the direct feed from the secure cell where we put the Vampyr."

She went to the TV and turned up the volume. Behind the static a voice could be heard speaking but it was impossible to hear the words. The Major then hit the rewind button, turned down the volume slightly and started her explanation.

"Sir. The prisoner lay down on the bed as you can see and practised some deep breathing ritual of some sort. And then he did this."

John hopped off the bed with a really big grin on his face. He took the tube of paste that he had been given and squeezed a little out onto the top of his finger. He walked over to the wooden railing that ran at waist height around the room and smeared the paste into a section. A loud noise came from the speaker, like someone was hitting a microphone. John walked over to another section and did the same. The noise was repeated.

The Vampyr walked to the centre of the room and turned his back to the camera. With what appeared to be great ceremony he dropped his pants and mooned the camera while shouting. With the volume up so high it was easy to hear what he said.

"THE SGC CAN GO KISS MY DIRTY RING."

Putting his pants back on he dragged a chair over to the corner and stood on it. The last thing the camera saw was the tip of a finger closing in on the lens.

The Major hit the stop button and waited until Daniel and Jack had finished their coughing fits.

"General. There are two possibilities that could explain how he was able to find the listening devices. Either his senses are so acute that they could detect the devices or he was involved in the installation of security devices in the cells on his Earth."

"Colonel O'Neill. Find me some answers."

The General walked out of the room, turning his back on his old friend with a great amount of deliberate effect. The Tok'ra just watched his host's old friend walk away. It took a lot of effort to stop his host from taking over and go after him.

******

John sat up on the bed after hearing a knock. He had been half surprised that he hadn't been moved after his 'dirty' protest but Americans usually played by a different set of rules from the Irish. If he had tried something like this in a prison back home the guards would have hauled him into a new cell and hosed him down. Just to make a point.

He almost wished that he hadn't done it now. The smell of the gunge wasn't good when eating it and it didn't make it any better out in the open. He gagged for a second and called out to whoever was knocking.

"Come in."

The door opened slowly and a second or so passed before he saw who it was. But the smell of Jack O'Neill wasn't too hard to miss. Him and that damned beer he always drank when he was relaxing at home.

"You know it's nice that some things aren't different between my world and this one."

The Colonel's eyebrows lifted.

"You still drink that Miller Gold stuff. It's alright, if I have it once a decade maybe."

"How did you know?"

John tapped his nose.

"Better than your average schnoz. Now may I ask what you want?"

The Colonel dragged the chair from under the camera and checked it for traces of whatever John had smeared on the camera before sitting. He saw the younger man gag and was taken aback.

"What's wrong?"

"The stuff I used to screw your equipment with is rank at best. Worse than when I have to eat it."

The Colonel sniffed the air and got only a mild whiff of brine. Nothing drastic enough to make him gag but, like the guy said, Jack was human and he wasn't.

"So you're probably here to see what I want to do next. It's pretty simple. If at all possible I want to go home even though there is fuck all there for me. That or at least get out of here for a while. And you want to know what I'll give you in return for giving me what I want. Right?"

Jack sort of nodded, knowing that both sides knew how the game was played but taking the shortcut.

"The base on the planet you found me on is a six level ammunition dump. There is everything from staff weapons to Death Gliders in the place and they are all ready and boxed for shipping. But as far as I remember, my version of that planet is now a smoking ball of ruined crap."

"That's sort of vague, you know. Can you give me anything more?"

"One of our recon teams did a full sweep of the area and counted a lot of Jaf'far guarding one little hole in the ground. A closer look showed that it let to a system of natural caves that had been expanded to hold Ammonet's little wardrobe of misery. The team managed to identify at least a hundred individual Jaf'far going in and out of the place. It was only after the queen bitch herself arrived that the decision to blow the place was made. And even then they saw that more stuff was being brought down to the dump.

The recon team went back to Gamma Site only when they realised that they didn't have enough explosives for the job. And we were sent in to finish it and her if we were lucky.

We weren't.

About ten seconds after we hit the planet we ran into a patrol and lost two people. We got as close as we could to the target, dropped our bombs and legged it. We ran into another two patrols on the way back to the gate. By the time those Jaf'far were dead I was the only one left. I got to the DHD and dialled in the address to our RV. And then another patrol arrived and that's when I landed on that mirror thing."

Jack waved his hand and grimaced.

"Been there."

"Yeah well so far my little trip has been far from fun."

John lay down on the bed again and closed his eyes. Jack took that as his cue and got up to leave but a puzzled expression crossed his face for a second.

"How did you know about the bugs in here? And the ones on the Tok'ra?"

"The bugs in here are run on normal copper wiring with electricity. I can hear the frequency that they give off. As for the snakeheads, all Goa'uld devices work off naquada power sources and you can track them by EM radiation emissions or a person with really good hearing. I could hear everything in the room be repeated a half second or so out of synch. And the second source of sound moved when Carter moved. Simple. I'll talk to you later, Colonel."

******

Samantha Carter stared at the pile of clothes that sat on her worktop. Not a lot had been done to the clothes since Janet had cut them off their visitor but something had clicked in the Major's mind.

This 'John Kelly' had mentioned something about a bomb to both the General and the Colonel. In fact the General mentioned something about a plasma bomb. From everything Jack had said the bombs had been dropped some distance from the ammo dump and triggered.

* You'd only do that if you were sure they'd destroy the base. *

There was only one problem. In Earth's entire arsenal there was only one device that could kill a base that big and that was a nuke. For one man to carry it the bomb would only be a fission device, unless it had augmented with Naquada. But nukes left traces of radiation and these clothes had none. There was no problem with her equipment or anything else. So their guest was lying.

Sam shrugged and made another note on a piece of paper. Plasma weapons were a theory and only that. They were stable, nuclear reactions that left a fragment of the radioactive fallout and totally destroyed whatever they were aimed at. And they were impossible to make.

* Well so was a naquada reactor and half of everything that has run through this place. *

Throwing herself into proving that Kelly was wrong was one way of dealing with the current situation. And that situation was her father. In all her years she had never seen that side of him, a side that was willing to betray his own kind. And it had to have been him. She could never believe that the Tok'ra would force one of their hosts to unwillingly do what he, they, had done. It was worse for her because his actions would hang over her even after he was long gone. She ignored that and descended back into her astrophysics again.

For the first time she saw the Tok'ra as the Colonel saw them. Untrustworthy and very reluctant allies to a barbaric, lesser species. It didn't matter that the 'lesser species' served as their hosts. If need be they could just turn their hosts off and shut down everything that didn't matter to their cause.

It had been the same with Jolinar. The Tok'ra had been so afraid that it had cut Sam off from her own body in order to stay alive. She had died saving her hosts life but the fear of being made a host again was back with a vengeance. She could remember her feelings when SG-1 had met the Tok'ra Council for the first time and the pain that she had felt at been asked to be a host.

Now, if she were asked again, she would probably feel disgust and fear. Fear that the Tok'ra would make her do something to hurt the SGC and the disgust that they would actually think it.

******

Jack and Teal'c waited outside the General's office for only a minute, checking with his orderly to see what mood he was in. All they got for their troubles was a hand held horizontally and then seesawed. Jack threw his hands up in the air and whispered 'great' before going to knock at the door. Some things had to be said regardless how people felt.

"Come."

The two members of SG-1 filed into the office as Jacob Carter walked out the other door and into the conference room. Jack could see, at least he thought he could see that the host was totally in control and not the least bit happy.

"What is it Colonel? I'm not in the mood..."

"I'm sorry sir but I just thought I'd mention something..."

"Spit it out Colonel."

Jack sat down in one of the other chairs in Hammond's office while Teal'c took the other. He took a folded piece of paper from one of his pockets and opened it up.

"Did you read my report on what the prisoner said sir?"

The General's fuse was burning and it wasn't a slow one.

"Get to the point Colonel!"

"Well sir. Teal'c pointed out that Jaf'far wouldn't be on a planet like 921 unless they were guarding something. Now the prisoner said that there was a supply dump on his 921 full of Goa'uld goodies like Death Gliders, Zat guns and other toys. I was thinking that if all the Jaf'far are in the same state as the ones we encountered we could take the entire arsenal. We might even get some new stuff for Carter to play with."

At the mention of the name 'Carter' the General's frown came back again but Jack could still see the wheels turning in his head. If he was right they could possibly be capturing enough weapons to arm a small army, in this case the SGC.

"Teal'c do you agree with the Colonel's assessment."

"I do indeed, General Hammond. Supply dumps such as this are rare but not unheard of. They would also be guarded by the best of a Goa'uld's Jaf'far. The one's we killed were in very poor condition and in all probability represented the best that P3X-921 has to offer."

"Thank you Teal'c, Colonel. I'll give the matter some thought. In the meantime I want you to question our guest again and get more details on this supply dump before any mission goes ahead."

Jack managed a small smile that grew into a wide grin as soon as he was out of the office. Anytime that the General used those words, with a few rare exceptions, missions had been ordered. All that had to be done now was to have a word with 'John Kelly' again.

******

Jack walked down to the cells and found the guard gone. For a second he thought that maybe Kelly had got out but thought again. Briggs didn't like this guy for showing him up in front of the General. He'd have a couple of dozen guards at the ready just in case his favourite guest tried something. A quick phone call gave him the full story. Another quick walk and an elevator ride brought him to Carter's Laboratory of Little and Large Disasters.

The sight was fairly comical. This John Kelly was about five eight, the same size as Carter, and looked as defenceless as hell in chains. It got worse. Briggs really didn't like this guy and had arranged for The Four Horsemen. These were four of the biggest guys to have ever been born. The smallest of the four was about six two and three foot across at the shoulders. At a pinch you'd mistake him for a pro wrestler. All in all, they could only be described as a version of Teal'c on steroids. Nearly every time that Jack had had to take the refresher course in hand to hand he went up against these guys.

And lost big time.

To make matters worse they were all kitted out with M-16's, the biggest thing that could be issued on base to a guard detail.

* Briggs really hates this guy. *

The prisoner had a pencil in his hand and was drawing something on a large sheet of paper. As Jack walked in the door he caught sight of the drawing which looked like a pair of balls connected by a cylinder of equal diameter. The cylinder had a pair of boxes draw into it, each about the size of a large paperback book. Kelly started to wave his hands over the drawing, as if directing the flow of something.

As Jack stepped inside the door, one of the Horsemen came to attention and scuffed his boot. Sam turned at the noise and looked up.

"Colonel. What are you doing here?"

"Well I was looking to have another friendly chat with our friend here and I found him missing. So I thought I'd pay a visit to the local mad scientist..."

Sam smiled at the joke.

"What ya doin'?"

Kelly turned his head and joined in.

"Trying to take over the world, Pinky."

"OK. No more drugs for you. And you can tell us about it over dinner in the mess hall?"

John smiled at the mention of food.

"Sure."

******

If the Four Horsemen looked comical guarding him in the lab they looked hilarious in the mess hall. John relaxed slightly when he arrived, sniffing as he entered the serving area. Sam didn't take it as a good sign when his face turned a shade of green as he looked at what was on offer. He sat down quickly and as far from the food as possible.

"What's wrong?"

John swallowed repeatedly to settle his gorge and barely managed to succeed.

"My kind have enhanced senses. We normally eat totally organic foods because we can taste any pesticides and stuff. It can get to be a pain but the benefit is we can avoid stuff like that."

Sam ducked her head at hearing the disgust in the Vampyr's voice. He was probably the only person including the General who could get away with saying that aloud in the mess hall. Staff Sergeant Marguiles loved cooking and thought he was a great cook. The only problem was that he didn't eat his own food except the desserts.

"Anyway, what were you up to in the lab."

"The good Major said that I was full of shit..."

"I did not!"

"... when I said that we were using plasma bombs to destroy Goa'uld bases. She said it couldn't be done. I begged to differ. She still said I was full of it and then some. I want 'nag nag nag, whinge whinge whinge' and she called what she thought was my bluff. When you arrived I was breaking another law of physics for her."

"OK. You know Carter, you should take a leaf from John's book. I could follow that explanation. Please go on."

Sam leapt to her own defence.

"Sir. He is saying that he can create a piece of a sun with a device that's half the size of any nuclear device we have. Including our naquada enriched bombs."

"You mean Samuel's 'Goa'uld-Busters'."

"Yes sir."

John held up his hand and waved it between the two.

"It's very simple. I'll show you."

Taking the top off a salt tumbler he drew a simple design on the table, much like the one on the drawing board in the lab. He drew a number in each of the cylinders and another in each of the boxes contained in the central cylinder.

"It's a simple theory. The first sphere contains seawater with two electrodes, an anode and a cathode, suspended in it. Both electrodes are part copper and part naquada. The other cylinder contains tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that's used in hydrogen bombs, and a rod of magnesium, thermite and raw, unprocessed naquada. The two boxes are a power cell from a staff weapon and a high-speed pump.

What happens is this: The power cell sends energy to the electrodes and causes electrolysis. This breaks the water down to hydrogen and oxygen. Ya follow."

John got nods from both people.

"The hydrogen is send to the high speed pump where it's stored in a reservoir until it hits a certain pressure. When it does the pump turns on and pumps the gas and liberated, charged naquada dust straight into the tritium. After five seconds the tritium is unstable with excess hydrogen and starts to break down. The power cell sends energy to the rod in the tritium and ignites the magnesium which ignites the thermite which in turn ignites the raw naquada and boom."

Sam shook her head.

"It shouldn't work. It can't."

"I know the basics and I've seen the results. All I know is that because naquada is a near perfect semiconductor it channels all the energy pumped into it along whatever circuit that it's in. When the naquada hits its peak temperature it piles all of fifteen or twenty thousand degrees into the tritium and ignites it. And you get plasma. End of story and end of anyone or anything within a couple of miles."

"But that..."

Jack tapped the table with his knuckles to stop the debate from breaking into violence.

"I'm sorry to bother you kids but could we get to something that we need to discuss. Can you give me as detailed a description of the supply dump and it's surroundings as possible?"

"Yes, I can. But it would be better if I went with you."

Jack shook his head. It wasn't the fact that he believed John's story, it was just that trust was a lot different to belief.

******

TO BE CONTINUED