Act 3

"So…you guys just, what, meet up at some bar and decide to take over the galaxy?" asked Jack as the others took their places opposite him at the table.

"Our goal is to defeat the armies of the Ori," replied Hazon Darr in a voice that sounded as though perhaps it came from a throat that had once been cut. Jack could see a scar that would support that supposition.

"Now see—that's the same thing we want to do. So wouldn't it be better to work together to do that than mess around with all this nasty business of threats and blackmail?"

"No." The response from Kete'c was swift and Jack turned to him, an eyebrow raised.

"Just 'No'?" he asked "Any particular reason?"

The Jaffa's eye narrowed and Jack could almost feel the hatred pouring off the guy. His was not going to be an easy mind to change.

"Okay…." murmured Jack, half to himself. He turned next to Cedrun. "What about you? What's your beef with earth?"

The Tok'ra frowned for a moment, obviously trying to figure out Jack's idiom. Finally he seemed to catch its meaning.

"I have no issues with your small planet, General. In fact, I am a great admirer of you and your people. You have become quite resourceful over the past few years, and now that you have become the Fifth Race, I find you all quite fascinating."

"Ahh." Jack sighed. Yeah. Just as he figured. Asgard stuff.

"Just so I'm clear," he added, offering up his best befuddled look. "The whole thing about the Nox…?"

Cedrun beamed.

"A simple ruse to assure your participation, General. What we wish to talk about are the Asgard. And more precisely, the Asgard technology currently imbedded within the systems of the Odyssey."

Clunk. There was the other shoe dropping. Just as he'd thought.

"I see," replied Jack, furrowing his brow as if contemplating Cedrun's words. Sam had put Odyssey on stand-by when she'd had Daniel radio the gate adress. If Davidson hadn't heard from them in twenty-four hours, he would bring Odyssey to the planet to investigate, in essence, delivering it right into Cedrun's hands. No wonder the Jaffa had given up the address so easily. Good will, my ass.

"As my Tok'ra friend has pointed out," Hazy Day broke into Jack's thoughts. "If you cooperate with us, you all get to leave. Nobody gets hurt. If we have to demonstrate our commitment to this endeavor…well…," the corner of his mouth turned up. Jack wanted to slug him.

"Okay, just so you guys are clear on this," Jack said, after clearing his throat and massaging the knuckles that so desperately wanted to make contact with any one of the three faces in front of him. "There's not a snowball's chance in Netu that I'm going to turn one nanobyte of Asgard technology over to any of the three of you. Just so you're clear."

The three exchanged looks, and Jack guessed that they had already known what his answer would be. He waited for what their next move would be.

"We already know, General, that the Odyssey will indeed turn up here sooner or later when they do not receive any contact from you within a certain time frame. So, in a way, this whole discussion is a moot point," Cedrun replied.

"Well, if the point is so moot, then why even discuss it?" Jack threw back at him. If he could figure out the trio's strategy here, maybe he could devise some way out of this. And they were just arrogant enough that he might be able to goad them into giving away more about the source of their information than they had intended. It was worth a shot.

"Because we also know that the complexity of the Asgard technology is beyond the capabilities of any of us. We need the assistance of someone who has already worked extensively with it."

"Well, don't look at me. Carter's the…." Jack's voice trailed off, understanding. Oh yeah. He'd gotten it right that time. The smirking son of a bitch Tok'ra was grinning ear to ear.

"And I believe Daniel Jackson has put significant effort into working on translating some of the Asgard data base," Cedrun added serenely.

Yeah. His fist. Cedrun's nose. It would feel so good.

And be absolutely useless.

"Okay. So you need Carter and Daniel. What the hell am I here for then?" Jack asked, figuring there was no point in beating around the bush any longer.

"To order them to do it."

"Like hell I will."

"Oh, indeed you will, General. You see, I've found that pain can be a very useful motivator."

"I've been tortured. By the best, I might add."

"Oh, we wouldn't dream of trying to compete with your experience with Ba'al, General. In fact, we don't intend to harm a hair on your head. Actually, we find torture to be much more effective when it's done on someone else. Say…Dr. Jackson, for example. Or perhaps Colonel Carter."

"If you kill them you won't have anyone who can get you what you need off that ship."

"Oh I agree. Killing would be a waste of resources. But I have found that an individual is still capable of accomplishing a great many things even when they are suffering the most excruciating pain. And I have also found that persons such as you are far more willing to take on such pain yourself than to watch others suffer it for you. So. I'll ask you again, General. Order Colonel Carter and Dr. Jackson to assist us with the Asgard technology."

"No."

"Then I must say, with all sincerity, that I do deeply regret what is going to happen next."

o-o-o-o

"UNSCHEDULED OFF-WORLD ACTIVATION"

The announcement blasted into Landry's office and brought him to his feet in an instant. He refused to allow himself to hope it was O'Neill and Company returning. Not after the MALP to P4X-548 had discovered no evidence of anyone having used that gate in a very long time; it was frozen in a glacier. Obviously the gate address the Jaffa had given to the Odyssey was bogus. Now Jack and his people were out there who knew where and he hadn't a clue where to begin to look for them.

Unless this, of course, was the prodigals returning home.

But he wasn't getting his hopes up.

And good thing too, he mused a few moments later, as Mitchell, Teal'c and Vala stepped through the great blue puddle and the iris swiveled shut behind them. Landry heaved a sigh of disappointment and started down the stairs to meet the other half of SG1.

He didn't have to go far. Mitchell was taking the stairs two at a time.

"Colonel—you're back ahead of schedule," observed Landry as they met half-way.

"Yes, sir. There wasn't much reason to stay any longer. It was a bust, General. Not only are there no Ori soldiers on the planet…hell, there aren't even any people on that planet."

The two men continued to walk up the stairs together, Landry leading the way

"Explain," he said. Mitchell pulled off his cap and wiped his brow as they moved into the briefing room.

"It was empty sir. Oh a pretty place, to be sure. But no humans. No sign that there ever had been any either. If anyone ever did use that stargate it was too long ago to leave any trace of anything. Damn thing was buried in a bunch of brambles."

Landry indicated a chair at the table in the briefing room and Mitchell threw himself into it. The colonel was well scratched up and not exactly as fresh as a daisy, but something had been niggling at Landry since the gate address from the Odyssey had come up dry and Mitchell's report was only solidifying that feeling. He needed as sounding board.

"We've lost track of General O'Neill, Colonel Carter and Dr. Jackson," he told him. Mitchell's face darkened considerably.

"When you say 'lost track', sir, you mean as in…"

"As in they gated to another planet from the one the Odyssey brought them to and they haven't been heard from since. They radioed the Odyssey the gate address they were supposedly heading to, but when we sent a MALP we found it an uninhabited planet. No sign of them."

Mitchell's hand smacked the table.

"Damn."

"Yes. Well. Now you come back from some place where we're supposed to be heading off an Ori army incursion only to tell me there's no one there as well. Is it just me or am I detecting a pattern here?"

Mitchell furrowed his brow.

"If you don't mind my asking, sir—just where did that intel come from?"

Landry pulled out a chair and finally sat at the head of the table. Without the rest of SG1 there it seemed enormous and vacant. He tried not to glance at the empty chairs.

"Ah. Now that's the real question. Seems we were the beneficiaries of a largess, compliments of the NID. One of their operatives, imbedded in the Trust, supposedly fed them the information, which was passed on to us, through the IOA."

"The IOA?" asked Mitchell, sounding confused. "Why would they go through the IOA instead of coming to us directly as they usually do. Agent Barrett…"

"This didn't come through Agent Barrett. In fact, when I called Barrett to try to confirm, I learned he's been on vacation. No one could seem to pinpoint for me who had passed along the information, but when it came through Woolsey's office, I really didn't have a choice but to follow up."

"Woolsey," spat Mitchell, as if the name tasted bad in his mouth. "Why am I not surprised."

Landry shook his head.

"Think of Woolsey what you will, Colonel, but believe it or not, he's always been on our side…more or less."

"Yeah, well, I'm afraid I've seen the less side a lot more than the more side. I guess I just can't let go of the fact that he wanted to have Jackson killed when he showed up here a prior."

"You didn't believe Dr. Jackson either, at first, Colonel," Landry reminded him. Mitchell looked sheepish.

"My mistake," he answered simply. "So…we got sent on a wild goose chase. For what purpose, do you suppose?"

Landry leaned back in the chair and frowned.

"That's the part I can't quite figure out. Except that I would bet my general's stars that it's tied in with General O'Neill's disappearance somehow."

"And where, exactly, did that invite come from?" Mitchell asked him, crossing his arms in front of him. Landry shook his head.

"We received a communication from a Tok'ra named Cedrun telling us he represented a coalition of Tok'ra who wanted to take a more active role in fighting the armies of the Ori. We haven't exactly been cozy with the Tok'ra since Selmak died. We've exchanged intelligence from time to time, but I'll be honest…they're as fractured as the Jaffa are these days. We tried to verify Cedrun's position, but we couldn't really find anyone with enough knowledge to give us a satisfactory answer. So in the end, we figured it was better to err on the side of trust with a former ally than to miss an opportunity to gain some more support for the war. And there are a lot of motherships out there in Tok'ra hands."

"So another mysterious source," concluded Cam. Landry nodded.

"So it would seem. Oh…and I might add, the IOA was adamant that it be General O'Neill who would be our representative to this summit."

Mitchell was hanging his head and shaking it.

"Well, as my grandma used to say, sir--if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…"

"Well, in this case, Colonel, I think it's a goose…and ours may be cooked."

o-o-o-o

"I should have gone with them." Teal'c's conclusion was irrefutable, Mitchell thought. They all should have gone with them. But they'd been played. And played good.

"20/20, Teal'c. We should have all gone. But Landry figures it was deliberate. Send us off someplace to look for phantom soldiers, and cuz the SGC's stretched so thin these days, splinter off Sam and Daniel to go with General O'Neill. It's an old, old strategy. Divide and conquer."

"Well, it seems to have worked quite efficiently," murmured Vala, sitting on the gurney in the infirmary. She was sporting a large scratch across her cheek and had a cold pack applied to her hand, under which Cam could spot some surface swelling. Those thorn bushes had been nasty.

"What is General Landry's strategy?" asked Teal'c, who hadn't a mark on him, although Cam still could not get used to the slightly older appearance of the Jaffa and the white streak in his hair.

"At the moment, sit tight. He figures if it's blackmail, we'll hear from whomever it is, sooner or later. And he's already got a pretty good idea of what it is they're going to be wanting."

Vala knit her brow, trying to grasp Cam's meeting. Suddenly her eyes brightened and she snapped her fingers.

"The Asgard technology," she said, delighted at having figured it out. Cam nodded.

"Indeed," added Teal'c. "It is the most valuable thing the Tau'ri have recovered in all it's years of travel through the stargate. It is only natural to assume that many will be seeking ways to get their hands on it."

"Which means we have to be on guard to keep it as far away from our enemies as we possibly can," Vala pointed out. Cam gazed at her and Teal'c and sighed. He was sure they both realized the ramifications, but he felt compelled to spell it out anyway.

"Which means," he concluded wearily. "That when it comes to the Asgard stuff, there's absolutely no room for negotiation. I'm afraid General O'Neill, Carter and Jackson are on their own."