The Walkthrough
Summary: After the death of Janet, everyone is suffering, including Cassie and Sam. But when Cassie is kidnapped by hostile aliens, can Sam save her, or can Cassie save herself?
Category: Drama
Season: 7 (post 'Heroes')
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Heroes, Rites of Passage, Singularity.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with MGM or anything to do with Stargate SG-1 or the movie. These characters aren't mine (pity! Imagine the fun I could have!!) So don't sue me!
Authors Note: This was meant to be a small fic that has turned darker and larger. The concept of the walkthrough is similar to that of what happened with Williow and Buffy at the end of season 5. If you watched Buffy, you get the idea. Please Read and Review!! Thanx!
The Walkthrough
"Black or white?" Hammond asked Cassie as the both sat at his desk with a chess board between them.
"I'll give you a chance. I'll be black," Cassie said playfully. He spun the board round carefully so the white pieces were in front of him. He wasn't going to argue with her and insist on ladies first, because when it came to Cassie and chess, you needed every advantage possible. It was one of the first things Sam had taught Cassie, when she came to live with Janet and over the years, Sam had explained the maths of the game to her, so she was unbeatable.
George moved his middle pawn forward two and the game began. Cassie copied his move and the pawns were in gridlock.
"How you doing at school?" George casually enquired as he thought about his next move.
"Not bad. I got an A in a maths test yesterday," she informed him.
"Well done," George congratulated her while moving his knight into play. "Bet Sam's really proud of you?"
"She is. It's funny how much of an influence she is. Maths and science are my two strongest subjects, that and French."
"Daniel?" George guessed.
"Yeah, he has me translating so much stuff for him lately that languages are easier for me now," she admitted.
"I've been meaning to ask how your training's coming on."
"Really good. It is so cool round here." George smiled at her comment. "Sam's been explaining the gate technology to me, Danny has me translating and cataloguing his works, Jack has been explaining military procedures – not that he keeps to them," they both laugh at this. "And Teal'c has been teaching me about other races and technologies, and kelnarim."
"Kelnarim?"
"He and Danny do it as a relaxation thing," she explained.
"And after all that, you still want to join the SGC?" George joked.
"Of course! If it's that bad, why are you still here?" Cassie challenged.
"The dental plan," George quipped back.
"You've been hanging round Jack too much!" she commented. "George, I'm here because of the SGC, and I owe it to my world and this world to help you. And I get to kick some Goa'uld butt!"
"And you say I hang around Jack too much," George said smiling.
There was something else that recently made Cassie more insistent on joining the SGC: revenge. It had been three weeks since her mom, Janet, had died offworld by the hand of a Jaffa and she knew crying was not going to help. She was strong and she was tired of people being careful not to mention Janet's name around her. It made her angry. She just wanted people to treat her the same as before, but they couldn't. Even Jack was different around her. It made conversation hard and once it had left the topic of the weather there wasn't much left to say.
She did want to join the SGC, even before the Janet's death. Since she knew about the existence of the Stargate and being from another planet, she felt that the SGC is where she belonged. She could protect the Earth from the Goa'uld when she couldn't for her own planet.
George moved his bishop and started to smile smugly. "Check."
"Where did that come from?" Cassie cried out on bring caught out. Cassie surveyed the board and realised that she wasn't in danger, it was just a lone piece that got lucky. She took his bishop with her rook and the scare died (as well as George's smile).
As George was figuring out his next move, there was a knock on his office door.
"Enter," he commanded.
When sitting with him like this, Cassie almost forgot that George is a general of high power in the Air Force. Cassie turned to see who it was at the door and watched Major Davis enter. Cassie looked him up and down. 'Boy he's cute,' she thought to herself.
"General, Miss Fraiser," he said greeting them both.
"Paul, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Cassie?"
"Sorry Cassie. Who's winning, or need I ask?" he said smiling.
Cassie laughed, and tore her eyes from the Paul and back to the board. George had made his move, and for the first time, she didn't know where to move to next. Everywhere she looked, she opened her king and queen up and that just wouldn't do.
"What can I do for you Major?" George said addressing the young major in front of him.
"I need to discuss with you the recent mission to P39-46B. The Pentagon are a little concerned about how that was handled," Paul explained.
"Do you guys want me leave?" Cassie said concerned she was in way of some top-secret military business.
"It's not urgent, it just gives me an excuse to come up here," Paul reassures her.
"And I don't want our game interrupted when I'm winning," George added.
"You are not winning," Cassie corrected him. "I was… temporarily distracted."
Paul leaned over her and rested his hand on the desk in front of her to get a better view of the board but that brought him in close proximity to Cassie. Cassie felt the heat from his body and the scent of his aftershave sent her senses wild. He heart rate increase and she desperately tried not to look at him and give herself away.
"Bishop to C4," he whispered in her ear. It took her a moment to figure out what he was saying, and looked at the board in front of her. That was the perfect move, it didn't open her king or queen to attack and it was a solid advance. She couldn't believe she had missed it. She moved her piece and admired his genius.
"Thanks," she said to Paul and he stood up straight.
"You're not supposed to help her!" George protested at the intervention.
"Sorry sir," he apologised.
"It's OK, if you give me my next move," George said.
Paul looked carefully at the board, and shook his head, "She's got you sir," he informed George.
George looked more carefully at the board and came to the same conclusion. He tapped his king knocking it over in defeat. "Fine, you win Cassie," he said leaning back in his chair arms folded, scowling at Davis. Cassie, smiling like a Cheshire cat, held her hand out towards George. Reluctantly he reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out $20. He handed it to her and she examined it carefully, as if to make a point.
"My work here is done," she said smugly and she rose out of her seat and started to clear away the chess pieces.
"Well, next time you won't have Paul here to help you," George said.
"But next time, it will take only half the moves to beat you. I'm having a slow day today," Cassie retorted. The chess pieces were piled into the box, and she moved towards the door.
"It's nice to see you again Cassie," Paul said and he gave her a hug, much to her delight.
"It was good to see you too Paul," she said quietly to him. "Till next week George." And with that she left the men to talk. She walked down the stairs to the control room, where she found Siler and Sergeant Davies working on the control panel running through a system check.
"Hey guys, what's up?" she said still cheerful after her win.
"Just doing a routine systems check. Wanna help?" Siler said to her getting out of the chair and offering it to Cassie.
"Sure, what do I do?" she said taking the seat and putting her hands over the keyboard ready to type.
"Firstly, access the diagnostics system," which Cassie does quickly. "Now we only want to check certain systems, if you do it all at once, it will take hours, and no-one can get home while the programme is running through."
"And that would bad," Cassie pointed out.
"Exactly. We just want to check the dialling system today. So now you've accessed the diagnostics programme you want to…"
"Locate the dialling system and separate it from the rest of the system, once I've done that, I can start the diagnostics programme," Cassie said matter-of-factly.
"Major Carter has taught you well," Sergeant Davies commented.
"Well it helps when you have a certified genius teaching you," Cassie said while securing the dialling system. This was the first time she had attempted a systems check, and part of her was glad Sam was offworld. She wanted to do this on her own.
As the Diagnostics programme was running through, a red light appeared in the top right corner of the computer screen and Cassie decided to investigate. Siler and Davies looked at each other and smiled. They were hoping she had noticed that and would try and fix it. You could tell she was Sam's protégé. As Cassie carefully looked through the page of computer code the light was referring to, and quickly noticed the problem. One of the lines of code was missing a 0. Just the one, but Cassie instantly saw it. It just screamed at her that it was wrong. She added the O and continued to watch the system check run through.
"You still coming out with all of us tonight then Cassie?" Siler asked as the programme was near completion.
"Sure. Should be fun. You lot on a night out is a crease," she answered smiling. She did enjoy going out with them, every-so-often, especially watching Daniel not handling his beer. It was a great site. But she resented, that lately, they asked her to go every week. It was because she was on her own now that they all felt they couldn't leave her alone, but she was fine. She missed her mom but she didn't need them to babysit her.
Finally the programme finished and encounter no other problems. Cassie rejoined the dialling system to the rest of the computer system and returned the computer to the idle screen.
"Very well done, Miss Fraiser," Siler said to her and she bowed her head in a Teal'c way to acknowledge.
"In two hours, when SG-4 are shipping out, I'll let you dial up the gate," Davies said smiling.
"Can't wait," Cassie said genuinely excited at the prospect.
"Until then, you can run through the simulation program." Cassie groaned. She hated this program. Endless situations to be solved and they never seemed to challenge her. She sat down on the computer in the corner and set the program running, and watched as Siler and Davies left the control room. As soon as they left, she minimised the window and brought up some of the SG files. She wanted to know everything about what happened to her mother. Every time she came to the SGC she tried to access the files, but she had to access them without people noticing, so she was being careful. She was up to Jack's mission report. She had put off reading his report as it was Jack and she knew what had happened to him on that mission too. It was a close call. She nearly lost two people she cared for. But she was determined to uncover the events of that day. She had already read Woosley's report on the matter and was very pissed off at him for blaming everyone else. She also got to hear Daniel say "You fire me, you throw me in jail, you do what you want" on the tape that went along with the report.
She knew how hard it had been on the whole of the SGC, but also on Daniel in particular. He had told her that he now knew how the rest of SG-1 felt when he ascended.
She found Jack's report and took a deep breath before opening the file.
02/20/2004
Mission to P3X-666
Report by Colonel Jack O'Neill.
SG-13 were sent on a reconnaissance mission to a planet designated P3X-666. It was a planet that came from the Ancient's repository from five years ago. The probe sent earlier had not detected anything within its range, however, as SG-13 reached outside its range, they discovered extensive ruins of a former city of the Ancients. Initial thoughts from Dr Balinsky believed the city was destroyed many millennia ago and thus posed no immediate threat. While Dr Balinsky was recording some of the Ancient script, a Goa'uld probe discovered them. This seems to be an idea that we gave to the Goa'uld. SG-13 were able to successfully destroy the probe which was promptly sent back through the gate at 1800 hours. Dr Balinsky requested and was granted more time to study and examine the ruins.
Major Carter, with the assistance of Teal'c, managed to interface the new probe with our computer system. Dr Jackson then translated the computer code and discovered that the probe had transmitted a code to a mother ship of SG-13's presence.
While Dr Balinsky and Colonel Dixon examined the ruins, Senior Airman Wells and Bosworth, set up a perimeter. However, on their duties, they were ambushed by a group of six of Anubis' Jaffa. In the fight, SA Wells was shot. Colonel Dixon sent Balinsky to report back to the SGC, while he went to his team mates assistance.
SG teams 1,6 and 9 and a medical team, headed by Senior Medical Officer Dr Janet Fraiser, were sent to SG-13 assistance. The medical team, SG-6 and Dr Jackson were sent to SA Wells position, while the rest of SG-1 joined SG-13.
SG-13 were involved in a fierce fire fight with more Jaffa that reported earlier. My initial thoughts was this was an ambush and by the number of Jaffa that had come since Balinsky's report, confirmed my suspicions. The area was overrun with Jaffa, and any hope of holding them off soon died, we were simply outnumbered. I communicated to everyone my intention to retreat, but Dr Fraiser informed me that SA Wells was not stable enough to be moved.
We attempted to hold off the Jaffa, until SA Wells was stable enough to move. The Jaffa was closing in around us, SG-9 were securing our access to the gate. Major Charles was shot and killed, leaving a three-man team to mend the gate.
At this point I noticed a lone Jaffa coming round on our flanks attempting to ambush my team. I moved to out flank him, but unfortunately revealed my position and I was shot in the abdomen by a staff blast. I was pulled from the open by Major Carter who assumed command.
At the same time, SA Wells was being treated by Dr Fraiser and Dr Jackson. SA Wells, whose wife was heavily pregnant with their first child, wanted a message recorded. Dr Fraiser worked on Wells while Dr Jackson recorded the message onto his camcorder. As they were recording a group of four Jaffa broke SG-6's defences killing Lieutenant Marcus and the attacked the medical team. Dr Fraiser was hit. When Dr Carmichael examined Dr Fraiser, she was already dead. SA Wells was getting increasingly worse. Major Carter radioed in and ordered them to retreat regardless of SA Wells condition. Dr Jackson communicated with Major Carter of their retreat back to the gate. On not wanting to leave her body. Dr Jackson carried Dr Frasier's body back to the gate. I was carried by Colonel Dixon and Teal'c back to the gate were we rendezvoused at 2053 hours, upon which the other SG teams were informed of Dr Frasier's and Lieutenant Carmichael's death. The final death toll was three. The planet P3X-666 can now be considered inaccessible as Anubis would have taken over the planet by now. Although, Dr Balinsky did manage to record a substantial amount of the text from the ruins which can be analysed later.
When Cassie had finally finished reading the report, she closed the window and brushed away the tears that had ran down her face without her knowing. She could tell by the language that Jack had found it a difficult report to write. The way he simply wrote, "Dr Fraiser was hit," showed how hard it was; he couldn't being himself to explain it in further depth. She could imagine Daniel refusing to leave her body behind. She knew how much he loves her, loved her. Sam had found it hard too, especially since she wasn't there and because she almost lost Jack as well. Even Teal'c was openly mournful. Cassie was at her memorial service at the SGC, but she could face people down in the gate room so watched from the briefing room upstairs. But what Sam and Teal'c said touched her.
"God damn it," she said as more tears rolled down her face. "Control yourself, Cassie," she instructed herself.
She finally turned back to the simulation program fearful of being discovered with the secret files of the SGC open in front of her.
"So what's the problem today?" She said sarcastically. She watched the screen as the 'gate' drew more and more power from her virtual base and seemingly did not want to stop. Cassie quickly switched the power to the back-up generator and cut the power to the gate, shutting it down instantly. She did it in forty seconds flat. She was getting faster each time that she did it.
She had just pressed the start button for the next simulation when the real klaxon sounded an incoming wormhole.
Cassie was instantly out of her seat and over to the control panel. She put the headset on and while she placed her hand in the panel to close the Iris she announced, "Unscheduled Offworld Activation," over the tannoy. As she was awaiting the IDC code, Hammond, Davis and Davies had come back down the stairs to see what was going on.
"Having fun Cassie?" Paul said upon seeing who was controlling the gate. She smiled and Sergeant Davies sat beside her on the other control. Finally the IDC code had been sent.
"It's SG-1, sir," Cassie told Hammond.
"Open the Iris," he ordered and she placed her hand on the panel again and the Iris swirled open.
"Medical team to the embarkation room," Cassie ordered over the tannoy. Hammond and Davis looked at her quizzically. "They are six hours early, something must have gone wrong," she explained.
Cassie's suspicions were justified as SG-1 came running through the gate with Sam clutching a very bloody right arm.
"Close the Iris!" Jack shouted and Cassie quickly closed it. There were a series of shot bangs against the iris and then the gate shut down.
"Were those arrows or people?" Daniel asked still staring at the gate.
While Sam was being ushered onto a gurney, Jack ran round into the control room to see Hammond.
"Colonel what happened?" Hammond asked.
"We met some locals that weren't friendly sir. And thanks for the medical team on arrival," Jack said.
"You should thank Cassie." Jack looked down and realised who was sitting at the controls.
"Nice one Cassie," he said gently patting Cassie on the shoulder. He was excused and went to the infirmary for SG-1 usual check up.