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Chapter Seven: (Not) Like a Low-down Dirty Deceiver


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When his vision finally cleared, O'Neill saw they were back on the sleek bridge of Thor's ship with the alien and Kaylee. Glancing around, he assumed that the remainder of the Serenity crew had been sent back to their own ship, as they weren't anywhere to be seen. He took stock of the team again, just to make sure that there were no injuries he hadn't yet noticed. Everyone looked to be fine, so far as he could tell, and they were mostly engaged in doing their own visual checks or heading for the weapon crates still open on the floor. Except Carter, who was moving the cylinder that contained the crystals they'd been sent to retrieve at Thor's direction while the alien was busy at the consoles, presumably getting them the heck out of dodge. He didn't know much about how Replicators got around when they weren't hijacking the ships of more advanced races, and he didn't want to find out now from them being followed off the planet.

"You folks do that a lot?" Reynolds asked, in a tone that attempted but didn't quite reach casual.

"Not any more often than we have to," Jack drawled.

"Better than Reavers. Should pay better, too, the little guy ain't lyin," Jayne said with obvious excitement. Now that they were out of the situation and he'd gotten to blow things up, the merc was obviously enjoying himself.

"Those were the crazy space cannibals, right? Yeah, we don't want to meet them, the Goa'uld and Replicators are more than enough fun for us." Jack replied absently. Carter seemed to have finally got the crystals stored away and had joined them in putting away all their weapons and gear from the run. Kaylee had come over, too, and was jabbering away in a technobabble-y haze the like of which even Carter couldn't have beat about how shiny Mr. Thor's ship was and how he'd let her look around. He actually found it kind of cute, especially since it wasn't really directed at him.

"Crew of Serenity, I have some of the materials you requested. Engineer Kaylee assisted me in determining appropriate amounts to synthesize." Thor moved one of the control crystals and a moderately sized pile of metals materialized nearby. "Unfortunately, I have received a message from the fleet that my assistance is required elsewhere immediately. I must not delay and your system is not in a direct path, so I will have to transport all of you to the SGC and return later to transport your ship back to its original location. Would you prefer to spend the journey to Earth on your own conveyance?"

O'Neill went ahead and answered for the group before Reynolds could object. "Yeah, Thor. We probably need to have a bit of a discussion before we get back near Earth." As usual, Thor wasted no time on pleasantries before sending the whole group of them back over to Serenity's cargo bay.

"Okay, campers, I think we'd better get all of our stuff packed up," O'Neill directed to the rest of his team, while half-waiting for the interjection he was sure was coming, if he was reading the ship captain's expressions right. The angrily furled brow and tightly clenched mouth were pretty clear indications Reynolds was not pleased.

"Now wait just one minute! That was not the deal!" O'Neill privately found it amusing that Reynolds had turned to yell at him as soon as Thor was no longer a factor, since none of the Serenity crew aside from Kaylee seemed quite prepared to deal with the alien directly. Not that Jack wouldn't be tempted to shortly start doing some yelling of his own if the man didn't calm the heck down.

"Now, correct me if I'm misstating things here, but haven't you folks been talking quite a bit about your lack of work lately and the fact that you didn't have any concrete jobs lined up after the one you just finished on Persephone? Thor's always been as good as his word to us, he'll get you back home. In the meantime, we'll put you up for a while. That's only fair of us to do in return for you folks doing the same for us."

As he so often did, SG-1's archaeologist had declined to follow his directive to go pack up and felt the need to interject and derail the exchange. "Er, Jack? Is it really such a good idea to bring them back with us? Their ship has no cloaking technology and even if we did somehow manage to get it down to Earth with us without someone spotting it, and find somewhere they could leave it undisturbed in the meantime, well, the NID..."

"You have a better idea, Daniel?"

"Oh, c'mon, Jack. You know I'm right."

"I didn't say you weren't, Daniel, I asked if you had a better idea. If Thor says he's got places to be, they're stuck with us until he's free again. You expect them all to sit on their ship out of radar range for however long that takes while we mosey down to the SGC?"

"Well, no, but Jack! We do owe these people and it's our fault they've been dragged here. Who knows what the NID might try?" Daniel was definitely stuck on the subject, and Jack wasn't entirely sure how to get him off of it. He hated to admit it, but Daniel brought up a good point. Even if they didn't have space ship engines anything like the Goa'uld or their other allies, it was still a more advanced and different design than anything that had been developed on Earth without alien crafts for reference. If nothing else, the experience with the Tollan had taught them there were plenty of factions of the government that didn't feel alien visitors had any rights if they could profit from them somehow.

Thankfully, Thor, or at least Thor's disembodied voice, intervened. "If you wish, I could beam all of you to the planet's surface after you chose a location to conceal the ship."

The Serenity crew had been listening in on the conversation with expressions ranging from Kaylee's eager anticipation to the Captain's continued anger. However at the interruption, they all looked comically disconcerted by Thor's voice coming out of nowhere. Reynolds, however, wasn't the kind of man to let that get in the way of his continuing an argument. "Just hold on here! Don't we get any say in this?"

"Aw, c'mon, Captain! We have a chance to go see Earth! It'd be fun!" Kaylee looked on the verge of pouting.

"Kaylee, that ain't..."

Jack isn't sure from the faintly helpless look on Reynolds' face if the man has so many objections that he can't decide which to voice first or if he just objects on principle and can't figure out how to justify it. Either way, O'Neill needs the man to start getting with the program, so he gives the group a rundown of their options and the surrounding circumstances. "The Stargate and the existence of life outside of Earth are top secret, so we can't just let you loiter around in your ship where you might be spotted. I'd like to say we could guarantee that no one would cause any trouble if we had you land your ship in a remote, secure area at night, but it's just not true. General Hammond is a great guy, but some of the people who can get access to his reports are less friendly."

He pauses to let that sink in fully before continuing on, "If you've got enough supplies, I imagine you could hang out on your ship in a hidden orbit behind one of the outer planets, but while Thor is reliable he's not always punctual."

"So are you sayin' you want us to come along, or not? I ain't entirely clear on anything other than your little gray friend seems to be stranding us. Which I recon goes somewhat against what I recall you promising after us going out of our way to help you out. Twice."

"Hey, hey! Thor just reimbursed you, and we didn't force you to take us along. Don't get me wrong, we do appreciate it, but we're not keeping you away from any pressing issues back home, and we're perfectly willing to return the favor of putting you up after what you did for us until Thor can return. We just have to be a little cautious."

"That is not any manner of reassuring," Reynolds replies with a wry twist to his mouth.

Jack shrugged, because he hadn't really meant for it to be, and went to join Carter and Teal'c in packing up, leaving the crew of the spaceship behind him, discussing amongst themselves.

It was perhaps an hour or so later when they were all gathered back together again. SG-1 had their packs, and the Serenity crew were still all clustered together, discussing what they wanted to do intermittently. Apparently they hadn't been able to come to any kind of complete consensus in the intervening time, although it did look like most or all of them had left for at least long enough to pack a few things if the new grouping of duffels and parcels on the cargo bay floor off to one side was any indication. It wasn't too much longer before they were all interrupted.

"We are approaching your planet, O'Neill. You must make a decision. The message I received was urgent; I cannot linger."

Jack turned to Reynolds. "You can stay on your ship and park it out at the edge of the system where no one will see it. Or you can come down to the base with us. Go through the medical check, have a chat with Hammond, agree to behave, do a little sightseeing in Colorado while we wait for Thor. Just so you know, the weapons have to stay here. Won't go over well on a military base, I'm sure you realize. Up to you folks which one you choose, but Thor will definitely get you home eventually either way."

Reynolds scanned the faces of his people – most of them were visibly eager, Kaylee almost bouncing. Even Jayne looked as interested as he'd been in anything so far that didn't include blowing things up.

In the end, it was the elaborately dressed Inara who spoke up, "It would be nice for all of us to have a little time off the ship, Mal. We wouldn't have to worry about avoiding the Alliance here, either."

The man was obviously listening to her, but when she finished speaking he didn't respond immediately, turning to look at River instead. Which Jack supposed given everything else that had happened so far shouldn't have been any kind of a surprise. However, any confirmation he was looking for from that quarter wasn't forthcoming; the girl seemed to be at best peripherally aware of the conversation going on while she stared in fascination at nothing the rest of them could see.

O'Neill coughed and gave the man a significant look.

Reynolds rolled his eyes at the eager faces surrounding him. "All right. What are you gonna have him do with my ship?"

"Thor?"

"I will take care of concealing the ship. We are within beaming range, O'Neill. I will send you down to the SGC and return when I can."

When the white light cleared, they were all standing in the briefing room at the SGC. SG-3 was gathered around the table in the middle of a briefing with General Hammond when they interrupted. For all that they had been missing for a while – though not nearly as long as they'd originally thought – and that there could have been no way for anyone to know SG-1 was going to appear, none of the people in the room looked entirely surprised to see the team beam into their midst. That's what came from having a few too many spectacular saves, Jack supposed, people stopped getting excited.

Although there was a definite curiosity directed at their appearance in company. Hammond stood and came around the table to greet them properly. "Colonel O'Neill, SG-1. Glad to have you home. I see you've brought guests, Colonel. Who are these people?"

"Well, General, it's a bit of a long story. At the moment, let's just say they're some people who helped us and Thor out. The rest can wait for the debriefing."

"Very well, SG-1, you and your guests should head down to the infirmary. I'll see you back here after you and SG-3 are finished, this is a story I think I'd better hear as soon as possible. Unless you need rest first?"

"That won't be necessary, sir." Jack turned to the Serenity crew and gestured elaborately, "Follow us."

A number of personnel gave the members of SG-1 friendly waves as they made their way to the infirmary. Kaylee made an insufficiently hushed exclamation about thinking that seeing Earth would be more exciting. It was obvious she was disappointed the place they'd been beamed to was made up of dull gray corridors, but the rest of her crew were feeling less let down and more obviously apprehensive. The prolific disbursement of SFs along their route and the tagalongs behind them from the briefing room were definitely making certain of their companions visibly nervous, despite how hard they were trying not to let that show.

O'Neill couldn't really blame them, given what he knew about their situation back in their own world, but he didn't really think there was anything he could do or say to reassure them, either. While General Hammond was perfectly willing to treat them as guests and give them a certain amount of freedom of the base on SG-1's say so, new visitors were always under observation for good reason. He hoped that the situation wouldn't devolve into some kind of a problem.

The standard procedure in the infirmary went quickly, if not quietly, since Jack couldn't let Dr. Fraiser get through a single one without any complaints about the needles. The crew from Serenity was cooperative enough, aside from a brief hiccup with River where Simon had to intervene. Since the ship's doctor had already been quite interested and inquisitive about their standard procedures already, the incident had barely registered before it was already taken care of. Exaggerated histrionics and teenagers who didn't like doctors they weren't related to aside, it was not too much longer before they were back in the briefing room, taking seats around the table with Hammond.

It took a while to get through everything that had happened, even in brief. SG-1 went through a very general overview of their original mission to P3Y-922, how it had ended with dialing Earth and stepping through somewhere else entirely, wandering the deserted unknown planet hoping to find something to power the DHD-less Stargate, the happy luck of the Serenity crew finding them, and the weird time discrepancy. The tale finished up with the equally weird naquadah readings they'd found on Persephone and the horror story about a planet named Miranda, followed immediately by Thor's timely arrival and their latest adventure with Replicators.

When the retelling was finished, General Hammond leaned back from the table with an inscrutable expression. "Any idea what Thor was called back for, or how long we'll have our guests here?"

"No, sir. Thor wasn't any more inclined toward explanation than usual."

"All right, SG-1 – and guests – stay on the base for the evening, let's make sure all the tests from the infirmary come through clear. After that we can talk about conditions for leaving the base. For now, get these people settled in the VIP quarters. Dismissed."

As soon as Hammond dismissed them and left the room, Reynolds turned to him. "We're where now?"

"Stargate Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We're just about 28 levels under Cheyenne Mountain at the moment."

"On Earth. We're really, truly on Earth-That-Was?" Inara asked, seeming not exactly disbelieving but nevertheless still needing some additional confirmation.

"Well, we never did figure out where your people got their wires crossed on that part, but here it is, just like we left it," Jack replied, spreading his hands to indicate the admittedly unimpressive walls of the briefing room.

Kaylee was about to ask a question of her own, but she was interrupted by the sights and sounds of the klaxons and "Unauthorized Offworld Activation" alert going off, along with the Stargate activating. The sudden flurry of activity, accompanied by all of SG-1 heading directly to the stairs down to the control room had all of the Serenity crew looking alarmed.

"Don't worry, folks. This happens all the time here. You guys just ... stay here. We've gotta," he gestured back over his shoulder to the stairs leading down into the control room, where the rest of SG-1 were already disappearing. He left them staring through the window into the adjoining Gate room in undisguised interest, although the distrust and desire to protest were also clear on their captain's face.

The colonel made his way down the stairs just in time to hear the gate technician on duty declare that they were receiving SG-7's IDC code. Hammond, who had already been down in the control room checking up on something, gave the order to open the iris. Considering that their arrival was obviously not expected at this particular time, it was not so terribly surprising that the team came hurling through the gate under fire from staff blasts.

It was a tense couple of minutes waiting for the whole team to make it through, though once it was over and the Gate shut down, all four members of the team seemed to be relatively unharmed. They'd learned way back near the beginning of the program not to leave anything too critical in the Gate room or risk it being blown up. Hammond's questions to the team leader returned a reply about a stray Jaffa patrol on their supposedly deserted destination for a follow-up botanical collection task.

All of SG-1 had developed the habit of racing directly to the control room whenever anything unexpected happened without even thinking about it, but thankfully, it wasn't every time that their various fields of expertise were needed. This clearly looked to be one of those times, so Jack turned to go back upstairs and deal with getting their guests squared away in quarters for the evening and perhaps taking them for a trip to the mess hall. He was certainly looking forward to that himself. Whatever the Alliance system might have developed otherwise in terms of technology, their cuisine left a lot to be desired.

He'd half expected to find one or more of the crew had followed SG-1 down from the briefing room above, once the excitement was over and he'd had a moment to think about it, but that wasn't the case. Returning to the conference room, he found all seven of them deep in a hushed conversation in front of the large window looking down into the room below containing the Stargate. They broke off quite blatantly upon spotting his approach.

"So you folks get your fancy bunker shot up a lot, you say?"

Jack returned an ironic smirk that was well matched to the one Reynolds was giving him. "Far more often than we'd like. The alarms go off every time anyone dials in at a time that's not prearranged. So it can be an attack, or just an ally wanting to chat, or even some scientist that sprained an ankle on one of the offworld sites. They'll probably go off a few more times when you're here, so you shouldn't worry."

"Then precisely when should we worry, do you think?" He'd gotten the idea from the crew's interactions with each other that their doctor, Simon, was more than willing to be confrontational, but so far, that had mostly been directed at their captain. The young man had addressed Jack only a bare handful of times since they'd met before now, and never in quite such a confrontational tone.

"Oh, if there's a call to evacuate the base, or the self-destruct countdown gets started up. That's definite cause for worry, but it doesn't happen very often," Jack answered, mostly seriously. "Not that you could do anything about it, but it would be cause to assume things are a little more fubar than usual. What's say we get you folks set up with some quarters and then take a stroll down to the mess?"

He showed all of them to their rooms personally. It was normally something that would have been delegated out, but all he had waiting for him to do was paperwork, and he felt he needed to catch an extra word with Reynolds before too much longer. Considering that Jack was certain the crew were criminals back in their own world, and they had told him explicitly they'd had very bad experiences with agents of their own government, it wasn't surprising that the visible presence of so much authority with a capital A was putting them on edge. However, it would not do for them to do anything that would compromise the safety and secrecy of the Stargate program because they got too antsy about their place here.

With that intention in mind, he left the captain until last, and followed the man into the room. He wasn't really surprised to find that Reynolds seemed to have been expecting it. "You have something you wanna say to me?"

"Yeah. Look. I get that your people aren't entirely comfortable with being confined and shadowed by SFs in a secure, government base after all you've been through. I sympathize, really, but the people on this base are responsible for protecting this world from extraterrestrial threats of any kind. And keeping the fact that such threats even exist secret. I need your assurance you and your people aren't going to start acting out."

"What exactly do you figure we could manage to do in this remarkably prison-like installation o' yours?"

"Well, I figure I don't want to find out. Aside from which, I also meant it when I promised we'd let you go topside and do some sightseeing. We do get a few refugees and visitors through here every now and then. There are just procedures that have to be followed first. It'll help that you're all completely human and from a society sufficiently advanced to not find technology scary."

It wasn't enough to get the man to back down from his belligerent stance, but then, Jack hadn't really expected it to be. "I don't suppose you have any better idea on how long these procedures of yours'll take than you do about when your little alien friend as hijacked my ship will be back?"

"Unless there's some kind of problem with the results of all those infirmary tests or with your people causing any kind of trouble, no more than a couple days, tops. You'll have to continue to live on base, and have an escort with you, but that's, as I said, standard procedure."

"That all, then?"

"Yep," Jack replied, popping the p sound at the end of the word excessively, before turning and leaving. He really didn't know if the conversation had made things better or possibly worse, but he couldn't think of anything that would make any more of a difference, either. He wouldn't go quite so far as to say he and Reynolds were similar, but he did have to admit, at least in his own head, that they had some things in common. If it was his team, he'd be no happier about being stranded out of their own control and told to just sit back and wait. Still, he had felt it necessary to try and convince the man to keep his people in line. Jack really hoped that whatever Thor had been called away for wouldn't take too long.

It did take a couple of days extra to get all the appropriate clearances to take Reynold's people out of the mountain. They didn't allow refugees or visitors out quite so often that the procedure was standardized, even if it did happen now and again. Thankfully, having the run of the base seemed to be sufficient appeasement for most of them for that limited of an interval, even with the guards, for as long as it took to get things all sorted. The crew unanimously exclaimed fondly over the food in the cafeteria, and Kaylee and River spent a fair amount of time hanging out with Sam in her lab on 19 while she looked over various technologies. In a similar vein, when Simon wasn't checking up on his sister there, he spent a fair amount of time swapping tales of the Alliance's advanced medical tech for those of having to deal with the craziness of off-world illnesses and traumas with Dr. Fraiser in the infirmary. Jayne, meanwhile, spent the largest part of his time haunting the gym, and when he had could convince authorized company to escort him, the firing range.

Unlike their counterparts, Reynolds and his second did not seem to spend any time exploring interests on their own but split their time between keeping an eye on all the others. While part of him recognized their patience might last longer if they were amusing themselves, rather than keeping watch, he was glad that Reynolds seemed to have decided to keep a close eye on his people. He mainly figured out Inara had been attempting to learn more about the cultures of Earth and the worlds they had visited when he realized that Reynolds was spending more time haunting the corridors of level 18 outside Daniel's office than anywhere else. It wasn't entirely clear what the relationship between the two of them was, other than seeming to spend an inordinate amount of time irritating each other. Which did tend to lead one to assume certain things, but then again, the same could be said of his relationship with Daniel, so who knew.

Thankfully their interest in these various pursuits was still keeping them entertained when General Hammond finally gave the okay for them to see some of the world outside of the base, though he did add the expected caveats about staying on base overnight and being escorted, and he specifically ordered that SG-1 be the ones on babysitting duty. That wasn't too much of a surprise, since they were still mostly spending time together. General Hammond hadn't been quite as intrigued by the mysterious origins and date discrepancy the Alliance system presented as Carter and Daniel were, but he'd been curious. SG-1 was due for a bit of time on-world anyway, but since Daniel and Carter were here, part of their allowing River, Kaylee, and Inara into their labs was an attempt to see if they could find any more clues as to exactly when the founders of the Alliance's system had left Earth and why.

Definitive answers would probably be impossible to find, but Daniel had come up with something of a theory, although it didn't sit too terribly well with Jack. The archaeologist had spent a fair amount of time looking at what was available so far as the historic records of the Alliance before Thor had come along to find them. As he'd been doing so, he'd found it puzzling that there was so much history available from before the late 1900s and after the supposed exodus from Earth in the mid-2080s. Yet the period in the middle was almost entirely blank in the available records. Thinking back over it now and reviewing over the notes he'd made, Daniel had become convinced that it was probably a deliberate omission.

At the time, the pattern hadn't seemed notably significant because they had been sure they were in a distant future. SG-1 had previously encountered civilizations with histories containing similar gaps in their pasts from lost and destroyed records. It was also, however, the sort of gap they sometimes found in the history of people transplanted by a Goa'uld. It wasn't a happy possibility, and it brought up even more questions than it potentially answered, but they knew there had been Goa'uld raids on Earth in times well after the Gate had been buried and before it had been dug up. There was that Christian village under Sokar's control that tried to drown Teal'c, for instance.

Of course Daniel might be wrong; it didn't really make much sense as a Goa'uld scheme. They were all about taking people for hosts and worshipers, not letting them run about and create their own technologically advanced societies in what they thought was hundreds of years into their future. Still, someone had moved these people off Earth, and it was long ago enough that they'd all bought into a fake timeline and risen to such a high population level. Yet it had been recent enough they knew details of nearly-contemporary Earth history, and there was that puzzle of the naquadah readings on Persephone. The archaeologist and Sam both were trying to come up with possible explanations and alternate theories, but nothing they could think of made the whole situation make sense.

It was only incidentally of interest to Jack, and he figured it would probably be a good thing to finally give them a reason to get out of the mountain before any of them managed to get too frustrated with not finding any definitive answers. As soon as the new permissions were granted, Jack moseyed down to Carter's lab first, where he found Zoe lurking around the doorway as River was looking at something on Carter's computer. The Major herself and Kaylee were poking at some doohickey on the lab table.

"I have just been to see General Hammond," he said as he walked into the room, and gained everyone's attention. Zoe followed in behind him to better hear what he had come to say.

"Was it about these guys getting permission to go off base?" Carter asked, brightly smiling.

"As a matter of fact, it was," he answered, feigning surprise. "So where do you think we should take them first? Personally, I'm leaning towards steaks at O'Malley's, since they lifted our ban. Maybe have a barbecue on the weekend."

"Really?" Despite her immersion in whatever they'd been doing just a moment before, Kaylee was immediately perked up by the suggestion of getting to see the surface.

"Yeahsureyabetcha." He smiled at the cheery mechanic.

Unlike Kaylee, who was nearly vibrating with enthusiasm, and River, who had given a happy smile as well, Zoe's expression hadn't changed. "You tell the captain yet?"

"Nope. Came to tell you ladies first off. Your captain's probably lurking outside Daniel's office again, that's my next stop. I figured I'd let one of you have the pleasure of tracking down that Jayne fellow in the meantime."

"Thanks," Zoe replied, her tone positively arid. Still, it was accompanied by a twitch of the lips that was almost a smile, maybe.

It wasn't that much later the whole group had assembled at the elevators, ready to go topside. To the visible annoyance of the captain and Jayne, Jack had once again reiterated that they had to stay with SG-1 and should try to blend in as much as possible, and to definitely not say anything to reveal the existence of the Stargate. They split into groups to avoid crowding the elevators excessively, and Jack had made a point to be in Kaylee's group. After seeing the barrenness of the planets Serenity had stopped on during their brief time on board, he really wanted to see her face when she got her first glimpse of Earth outside the mountain.

The way her whole expression lit up brightly at the sight of Colorado was definitely worth it. Hers wasn't the only excited expression, though he figured at least some of it was from the lot of them being cooped up on the base for several days now. He definitely got the same feeling after he'd been down there too long without getting out on this world or some other, even if he wasn't nearly so expressive about it.

Jack's original suggestion of a visit to O'Malley's was generally agreed to be a good place to start, since the crew had been so impressed by the cafeteria food. It took a couple vehicles to get them all there, and it took an extra little while to coax Kaylee to get into the car rather than attempting to get a closer look under its hood at the engine, but soon enough they were on their way.

At least a few members of the staff recognized them and gave a wary look at the entrance of Sam, Jack, and Daniel, but nothing was said. The glances were enough to tip off the more observant members of Serenity's crew, though.

"I gotta say, a few of them folks workin' here don't seem terribly pleased to see you. Any words on that?"

"Oh, not many," Jack replied to Reynold's question. "Daniel here started a bar fight last time we came, got us banned for a while." Almost as one, the Serenity crew turned to look at the archaeologist, many of them raising an eyebrow or two.

Daniel flushed a little both from the scrutiny and irritation. "That's not exactly the whole story, Jack." At interested looks from nearly everyone, including Jayne, he continued. "We were - testing something for work. It gave us all enhanced speed and abilities, but it also skewed our judgment quite a bit."

"Now see, that there sounds like fun to me," Jayne said.

"Must not have worked out well," Zoe suggested, "since we haven't seen anything like that." She raised a brow, suggesting without a word that perhaps SG-1 had been keeping some of the more interesting things on the base hidden.

"Well, not only did we end up disobeying several orders while under the influence, the darn things fell right off with no warning in the middle of an op. Not exactly the most useful item ever," Jack explained with a sarcastic half-smirk. Reynolds and Zoe both gave sympathetic grimaces at that, though neither made any further comment.

The conversation flowed pretty well through dinner, if one could overlook the crude exclamations Jayne made over the size and quality of the steak when it arrived. They even managed to get through a couple of rounds on the pool table without incident, though it took the Serenity crew a while to get used to the table. Apparently, pool tables of the future used holographic balls of all things. Seemed a little weird to Jack, but then considering the places the crew was likely to visit, perhaps keeping the things from being used as projectiles or stolen might be a major concern. All in all, the group had an enjoyable night.

It was just the first such outing of many, while they waited for Thor's return. For the most part after that first day, they stuck to after-hours and weekends so that SG-1 could do the things they needed to do around the base. As the time passed, the Serenity crew relaxed into a routine and a more companionable relationship with the people and restrictions of the SGC. All of them, even Zoe, who had seemed so stoic and forbidding towards them, loosened up considerably and began to spend less time guarding the rest of the crew and more time just joining in with whatever they were doing on a given day. All of them except Reynolds, who never lost the restlessness and kept asking about Thor, no matter how many times he was told they just didn't know when the alien would be back and that he would be told as soon as the Asgard showed up - assuming Thor didn't just beam them all away without warning.

So when the man stalked into Jack's office (Hammond thought this was an ideal chance to make Jack catch up on his paperwork – d'oh!) with his face most resembling an angry thundercloud, the colonel expected another impatient tirade about alien hijackers and missing his ship. He sighed internally, but did his best to keep a calm exterior because he could sympathize a little. O'Neill began to explain yet again that there had been no world from Thor when Reynolds cut him off.

"Ain't about that." The man gestured abruptly, and for the first time, Jack registered he was holding something in one hand. Thinking back, he recognized it as the little computer tablet that had been briefly lent to Daniel and Sam to look over various information on the history and technology of the civilization the crew was from.

"So, do tell, what is it about?" O'Neill asked, sitting back in his chair while he waited for the man to continue.

"Crew made a mail stop afore we got snatched up by your alien friend. Got a package addressed to me, but in all the excitement I stuck it in the bottom of my pack and near forgot about it until today." Jack expected the man to elaborate, but there was such a long pause before he continued that he was wondering if that would be the case after all as he watched the muscles in Reynold's jaw flex.

"You still telling me there's no way to get us back any faster than just sitting around waiting on that Thor fella?"

O'Neill sighed exaggeratedly. "Unless you want to go back without your ship through the Stargate to be stranded on that planet you found us on? No." Jack wasn't entirely sure that he liked the man all that much, but it was plain that all of his crew looked to Reynolds with varying degrees of respect and affection and he quite liked a few of them. Therefore, he added, "Is there some kind of emergency?"

"Got a message. Strange part is it heavily featuring the two dead members of my crew. Looking mighty alive, if not entirely well, in the manner of clearly being hostages."

Jack blinked. "Have you told-"

"No." Reynolds cut him off sharply, and then added while running a frustrated had over his face, "if we are truly stuck here, ain't nothing they can do about it until your Thor comes back."

Jack blew out a breath, "We can try sending a message to Thor telling him there's a problem, but to be honest it's really not likely to get him here any faster. Was there any more information about why they had your people or what they wanted? It's possible that we might be able to help, especially with the strange naquadah readings Carter picked up and your people being alive making it a serious possibility they have a sarcophagus."

"You really think your General is gonna go along with that?" There was a twist at the corner of Reynold's mouth that conveyed nothing but skepticism, and yet Jack was sure there was at least a little catch of hope in his voice.

"We've talked him into stranger things, that's for sure."

"Perhaps maybe you could, then. I gotta wonder myself why you would, though. Ain't no profit in it as I can see, and you won't never convince me a big operation like this one doesn't spend a great deal of time concerned about there being one."

Jack shrugged in acknowledgment. "To be honest, we want to avoid any contact with your Alliance government."

"It ain't my -" Reynolds' return to temper was as true to form as it was completely expected. Maybe Jack was needling him just a bit on purpose.

"Yeah, yeah," he waved a hand idly, dismissing the beginning of an irritated disavowal, "but we also want to have a good idea of what's out there in the galaxy that could be trouble. If the Alliance is in possession of some fairly benign Goa'uld technology, they could also have more dangerous things as well. Since they're aware of Earth, if not of its current state, ignoring them and hoping they're never a problem could truly come back to bite us in the butt."

"Depends somewhat on the situation, of course, and what information you have..." he trailed off suggestively, hoping that Reynolds would either elaborate on what the message was or even perhaps pull it up so he could see for himself, since the man was still holding the tablet he'd presumably watched it on.

"Message don't say much. Just shows they've got my crew and gives an address I'm to wave when I'm willing to negotiate."

"Not a lot to go on, then." Reynolds didn't dignify that with a response, and Jack hadn't really expected him to. "I'll have a quiet chat with General Hammond about what we might be able to do to assist you folks without straining the resources of the SGC or calling undue attention. There are plenty of people who have access to our reports that I guarantee you don't want anywhere near your people or that government you're not so fond of."

It was obvious that Reynolds was unhappy about the circumstance, even more so than he'd been before. At first he was surprised that the rest of the Serenity crew wasn't picking up on it and asking any questions, but then he gradually realized that they were acting differently by giving the man more space. Apparently moody and uncommunicative was a common enough state for their captain that it wasn't causing his companions any particular amount of suspicion.

Hammond had always been a reasonable man, and he patiently listened to Jack's suggestions that with the few and yet troubling things they knew about the Alliance that it would be prudent for them to find out more if they could. Yet, as expected, he didn't much like the idea of sending them back off with no idea of what they were walking into with no easy way home. The only Gate they knew of in the area both lacked a DHD and was out on the very edge of the territory besides. However, with Hammond, the fact that all of SG-1 had their reasons for wanting to investigate further weighed a great deal in the balance of making the decision. He wasn't quite willing to immediately okay their return when Thor made his presence known again, but it was obvious, to Jack at least, that Hammond was plenty willing to let himself be persuaded when the time came.