A Few Ori

Sam and the others got a little ahead of them and Mac calls to them. "Hang five, people." They stop and turn to face him. "Alright here is what I need you all to do. Daniel is with me..." He sees a worried look upon his niece's face... "Don't worry Sam, we'll have...Colonel how many fellows have you got guarding the um, detainees?"

"Thirty two sir, and another twenty throughout the ship." Petr said convincingly.

"Sam we'll have thirty two heavily armed soldiers covering our back, so I want you, Cam, Teal'c and Vala to go over this ship, take some of those other troops with you if you must. But I don't want to take any chance of something nasty catching us by surprise if you get my drift. Look out for anything unusual, or particularly, a person or persons who may be in hiding." Mac, looked at his niece, searching something, he couldn't figure it out just now.

"May I suggest Admiral, one of us should perhaps go to the bridge and monitor our surroundings, now that Ishta has departed." Teal'c proposed.

"Good idea Teal'c. Vala you've got the bridge ok." She was about to protest, but one look from Mac dissuaded her otherwise. He saw her expression, somewhat like his daughter when she wanted to have her own way, even as adults, women were good at that. "Ok then, take two marines for company. Vala beamed like a kid on Christmas day.

"Yes sir Admiral." And she was off. Daniel called out to her running figure. "Don't touch anything." She just waived and was gone.

Mac turns to the others. "How old is she?"

In unison they answer. "About fifteen."

"What oh, yeah heh, heh. Right then, you have your orders, call in if you find anything ok?

"Yes sir." And the remainder of SG1 left him there with Daniel and the Colonel. "Let's finish this up Daniel."

In the vast space that served as both cargo and a maintenance bay, the prisoners were gathered, ringed by Petr's troops. When Mac mentioned to Sam about being heavily armed, he did not realise how prophetic his words were. Apart from standard issue P90's and M4a's, other soldier's had a variety of heavier calibre weapons, 7.62mm minim's and Steyr F89's. Though the prisoners far outnumbered the soldiers, if they so much as passed wind, they would be dead. More than half of the troopers were from the newly formed 2nd Jaffa SF battalion.

Mac surveyed the sullen looking Ori followers. True enough there were Jaffa amongst these lot, probably from the Rishek clans, the rest was a mixed bag of humans. A few might have been from the original Ori incursions that were left behind when the Ori were defeated on their home turf; the rest most likely were from this galaxy that had swallowed the drivel the Priors dished out to them. An interesting situation here he thought.

But for the moment he was looking for something else, he scanned the groups, some sitting on the deck, some standing together, some idly chatting. Over toward the rear of the crowd, there, he spotted what he was after, he counted them, twenty two, standing off in a bunched group, keeping a little distance from the rest, he looked hard at their faces, six he recognised. Grimwald, Tolon, Bethyl, Hogarth, Fletch and Seannor, all Ori lawmakers. The others were just vague faces he would probably have known millennia ago, or Agathon would have. He turned to Petr and whispered instructions for those to be watched more closely, the colonel slipped away and placed his men accordingly.

Mac grabbed Daniel by the arm and guided him toward the centre facing the crowd. "Righto the Daniel, now we turn the masses."

"I'm not sure I know what it is you want me to do?" He said quietly.

"Just follow my lead son, I'll guide you." He placed his hand gently on Daniel's shoulder. Then he addressed the multitude. "Listen up all of you." Damn good acoustics in here he thought. "We are going to give you three choices; one, we will give you your freedom if you want it. Second, to get this freedom, you can join with us to fight the Ori, or third, we will drop you of at a planet of our choosing. But it will be a planet with no Stargate, so you will be on your own from that point, with no chance of ever seeing your homes again."

For the briefest of moments there was complete silence. All the assembled prisoners just stared at Will, as if he was stark raving mad. Which he probably was to even consider doing this. Then, suddenly there was uproar. There were cries of, 'Why would we join you, to fight those we serve...you cannot fight the Ori, they are the true Gods...' It went on for a bit, until Will put his hand up. "Silence!" He shouted, and amazingly, that had the desired outcome.

Mac called for the Marines to bring the body bag over and lay in front of him, he turned to Daniel. "Show time Danny boy."

Sam, Teal'c and Cam, in company with some of Petr's troops had scoured the ship fairly thoroughly, apart from those area's the Master Sergeant with them, indicated had already been searched when they boarded the ship. Sam used a life signs detector all the way and they found nothing but a few more dead of the Ori crew. There were fire-fights on several levels when the ship was taken by the allied troops, until the surrender was brought about, but only after a prior was killed. The ship's crew could not believe that was possible, only they did not know of the SGC's anti Prior device, carried by all commands now. They were presently two decks below the cargo bay and Cam was about to call it in and head back to the Admiral when an Air Force SF officer spoke to them. "Ah, colonels, you might want check this out."

"What is it captain?"

"It seems to be an entrance of some kind to another part of the ship ma'am." Somehow Captain Sullivan had inadvertently activated a control on the bulkhead and in doing so, a low portal was revealed. Joe stood there waiting for the others to come to him. The passage within was unlit, he held his M4 low with the attached torch throwing it's beam up into a narrow tunnel, about fifteen feet long. Another closed hatchway could be seen at the other end.

Mac stood over the corpse of Thalas, the crowd were visibly shocked. It would appear that they knew who he was, or at least had an inkling of who or what he was. "Nearly three years ago, the forces of the Tauri, with help from our friends, had managed to defeat the Ori. Yet here we are again, those same forces have come to try and bring destruction upon us again. Now before we detail those choices we're offering, I want to know why and how you have come here again?"

A soldier stepped forward, he was from the Ori homeworld and he looked as if he had served them a long time. For some time he just stood there looking down on the body, then he turned and spoke to his fellows. "I have been a soldier of the Ori and followed Origin for as long as I can remember. I believed in serving them, the Origin taught me they were to be revered as Gods. I never doubted it. This one..." He pointed to the corpse. "Told me that we have strayed, the Priors were corrupted and surrendered us to our fate, he told us that he and those that came with him, would lead us back to the light, that they were the successors of the Ori and we should follow them..."

Daniel and Mac wondered where this was going. The SF were getting twitchy as well. Something was going to happen, but what. Mac kept a sharp eye on the ones he knew were capable of causing them a lot of grief. The old soldier continued.

"They showed us miracles, healed our sick and injured, they said nothing would befall them, for they were indeed children of the Ori themselves." He took a deep breath. "My friends I think that once again we have been lied to. They may be Ori, but we have the right to choose our freedom. I will go with these who were once our enemy. It is those that choose to take the Origin path or make false claims in the name of Ori who are our enemy." At that point the man began to grasp his throat as if he were choking. Mac looked up at the group he had targeted and saw the one he once knew as Hogarth holding his hand forth, toward the soldier. Mac clicked his coms to another channel. "Now Ishta!"

Daniel had only time to give Will a puzzled glance. A shock wave passed through the entire ship, many lost their footing and frightened faces were everywhere. But in the rear, the group that the Admiral had singled out did not. They must have realised something had happened that would effect them alone. A tall man Mac only barely recognised, reacted swiftly. He turned to the nearest SF and struck him violently, as the soldier went down the man grabbed his weapon, unfortunately it was a F89, he turned it towards Mac and Daniel and fired a burst. He was clumsy though with the unfamiliar rifle, and his firing solution was blocked by the crowd. Five went down immediately, one round did manage to find Mac's shoulder and a young SF was severely wounded. The other of the Ori group tried to rally behind the one with the weapon, but not before another SF took him down with a single shot to the head from a M4. Petr's soldier's moved in quickly to restore order, and some surrounded the remaining Ori and forced them into a kneeling position, hands behind their heads.

Vala was happily raking in her bets from her two SF companions. She was a hell of a card player. The faint echo of gunfire could be heard by all three. Startled she looked at the nearest soldier. "That sounds like it came from the cargo bay I think" He said without panic.

"We'd better get down there, quickly." Vala was good at ordering males about. She clicked on the radio. "Samantha, Cameron, I believe there may be trouble, we heard gunfire coming from Daniel and the Admiral's position."

Sam was hovering over a console in the discovered section. Her and the rest of the team had found that, the compartment they were in, was actually an escape module, with it's own propulsion and guidance systems. Within the main chamber, there were seventy two cryo chambers, very much like the one General O'Neill used in Antarctica. Not enough for the entire crew of a ship of this size, but Sam figured, there were most likely to be one or two more of these modules. She was about to dash out as soon as she heard the radio call from Vala, until Cam stopped her. "No Sam. This is too damned important. You stay, we can handle it. Sullivan, stay with Colonel Carter. Teal'c with me." Sam was about to protest, but she knew Cam was right. She reluctantly watched them leave.

As the troops were trying to restore order, another of the Ori turned on one of the SF's. It was the woman Mac recognised as Bethyl. She had somehow gotten hold of the soldier's knife and slashed him across the throat, in the confusion one of the others grabbed the dead man's rifle and immediately turned it on the nearest guards. Three of them succumbed to the fire, a fourth badly wounded fell as well. Other soldiers organised quickly, but not quickly enough. Another Ori collected the weapons of the fallen and all of them gathered themselves together and positioned themselves behind some crates and a damaged fighter on the deck. A riot of panic broke out amongst the other detainees, a riot Mac did not think he could easily quell. He was going to lose control of the situation. 'Damn.' He swore under his breath.

Cam and Vala with their groups almost ran into each other in the passageway leading to the cargo area. They were in the section that would bring them to the rear, or more precisely, forward of the Admiral, but behind the Ori. One Marine had already appraised them of the situation as they drew nearer to the large entryway, about thirty metres away from the Ori group. Inside a few of their followers, perhaps those more fervent to their doctrine, scampered to join with them. Some of the SF's and Marines fired above their heads to stop them and would have shot them, only Petr ordered them to cease fire. Not out of fear of killing any of them though. No, he was worried a hull breach could occur with a wrongly placed shot.

'This has to end now.' Mac said softly to Daniel, who had his own P90 pointed toward the crowd. He yelled at the hostiles. "Drop your weapons now. You cannot escape this, it will only end in your death. Stand with your hands above your heads and leave the weapons on the floor, now!"

One of the Ori, a male, replied. "It is you who will not escape. We know who you are, but we are more. Leave this ship now, or we will start shooting. Your weapons, though primitive, are very effective. We can harm a great many in here before you get us, 'Admiral'." He used the word almost as an expletive.

"You would kill your own people? What kind of beings are you?" He knew very well. Mac was biding his time. He was well aware the gunfire would be heard through the ship, and something he had seen told him they will come from behind these pestilence.

There were about fifteen who had managed to rally to the Ori, the rest tried to find cover as best they could. Marines and Sfs did their best to get them to safety, mainly out into the passageways. The Ori who had seemingly taken command, shot a burst directly at those nearest to them. Ten or more went down. "There's your answer."

Daniel realised at that point, that he, Mac and Colonel Szbeski, were standing right out in the open. Petr had his M4 held ready to shoot anything that moved behind those crates, Mac stood firm.

"Sir..Admiral don't you think we should find some cover?" He asked.

"You can if you wish Daniel, but I'm standin' right here where they can see me." He half turned to look at the other two.

Daniel just shrugged. "Oh well, if you're staying, I guess I am."

"I'm with you sir." Petr said.

"Damn good guys." He clicked his coms. "Sam, Mitchell, Teal'c. Where are you?" He spoke softly, but urgently.

"Sir, Teal'c, Vala and I with a few troops are stationed in the companionway, just up ahead of you, behind some guys with guns. What's goin' down sir. We can take out some from here...over." cam replied.

"Not yet Cam, hold your position." He knew that Ishta's use of the Ori weapon, attuned to the anti-prior device frequency would work, but for how long? It had to be a lot longer than the regular devices, but how much longer? Hours, days? Do the Ori themselves realise? He whispered into the coms. "Cam do you or any of you have silencers for your weapons?"

"A moment sir." He questioned the soldiers with him, one of them, a young Kiwi corporal had a silencer for her M4. "Ah yes sir we do, how can we assist."

Mac took the interlude to stuff his handkerchief under his jacket and pack it on his shoulder wound. It wasn't serious, but God it hurt like hell. Gettin' old, he thought. "One more chance!" He bellowed, you can leave this ship alive or dead, it makes no difference to me."

"Admiral sir, do you have to goad them like that?" Daniel said, and thought immediately of Jack. "These two are like brothers."

"Yes Daniel, I believe I do." One thing for sure, they're definitely neutralised now, for the time being. Turning to the Colonel he whispered low. "Petr, have your troops start moving these others into the passageways, quietly in small groups."

What Mac needed now was a distraction, but he certainly was not needing a blood bath.

"Aye sir." The colonel then instructed his command to carry out the Admiral's order. In two and threes, they began ushering the other Ori followers out of the cargo bay.

Looking about, Mac thought he found what he was looking for. Directly above the hostiles was a pipe junction leaking steam, probably a waste line from the reactor cooling, damaged in the earlier battle. He hoped so. But what were the Ori waiting for. Daniel felt the same. "Admiral, what's going on?"

The minutes were ticking by. Bethyl spoke to the others in soft tones. "What do we do. We can't escape, you all know who and what he is...he will not allow us to live, and if we try to shoot our way out, they'll surely kill us anyway."

Hogarth turns to her sharply. "What do you propose Bethyl, surrender. You have something in mind. Whatever that weapon was they used has stripped our powers, it may be temporary, but it may not. The way I feel right now, it could be permanent. But this I do know, I am not going to die here, not now, not in this galaxy. Seanna, you knew him best, you told us once that he spared you, even though he could have ended your existence for all eternity, is that not so?"

"Yes it was so long ago, he looked different then, younger, yet somehow the same. How many times though, has he been reborn? A hundred? More? He may have lost a lot of who he was. This I do know, the last time we danced with him, three hundred of our brethren died the eternal death...he was much more brutal then, than I could ever imagine him to be. And you know we can't kill him, no matter how hard we tried."

Mac was getting impatient with them. "What are you waiting for?" Just then Sam called him.

"Sir, we've found something I think is pretty important."

"Not now Sam we're in the middle of something. But keep the channel open."

"Sir?"

"Just a little while Sam." He returned his attention to the problem at hand. "I'm going to give the order to open fire in two minutes, unless you drop the weapons and come out."

Just then one of the Ori got a little panicky, one of the younger ones. Obviously she did not want to die, knowing she could not ascend again. "Wait!" She stepped out from behind the crates and boxes. "Wait, let me talk with you!" She raised her hands, Mac could not clearly identify this one, he thought it might have been Rama, but he wasn't sure, she was very young when she ascended to the Ori. The others let the weapons fall, SF's quickly gathered them up and moved smartly away from the Ori.

Hogarth spat vehemently "Rama, what are you doing child?"

She turned slightly so that Mac could not see her face, she smiled wickedly at the other Ori.

"Come forward" Mac called out, and she obliged. As she drew closer, mac indeed could see who it was. A violent young woman who rose quickly within the Ori ranks, despite her youth. He had a bad feeling about this, the hairs on his neck stood up.

She came closer and stood in front of Mac, Daniel and Petr seemed to sense something as well, each of them moved to either side of her.

"I know you, or at least I knew you long ago."

Mac's companions looked at one another puzzled.

"Once though consumed with the battle lust, it was said you could be merciful."

"Get to the point, I don't have time for this." Mac knew for sure who he was talking to now, a cunning deviant, who will try anything to save her own neck. She moved just that much closer, and before anyone realised, a long stiletto slid from beneath her sleeve and she plunged into Mac's ribs.

Light years away in another part of the Galaxy, Anne MacGregor had just finished talking to Julie Henderson, she was in her private study looking over med reports, when she felt a sharp stabbing pain in her lower right chest. She clutched her side and pulled her hand away to reveal blood.