Disclaimer: Once again, I am not on the list of people who own, or have any rights to, the Harry Potter or Stargate universes.
A/N: Be sure you're familiar with the plot line of 'Between Two Fires,' before reading. A good summary can be found at Gateworld, and the script is at IMSDB.
Fire
"Good afternoon Mr. Lee. The President is still in a meeting with the South Korean Ambassador in the Green Room. You can wait in his office."
"Thank you Peggy," said Stephen Lee. He strode into the Oval office, closing the door after himself. It was his second year into his position as Secretary of Magic, and this was his tenth visit to the President's office, but it never got old. He passed the time waiting for the President by pacing around the room admiring the portraits and paintings.
He still didn't know why President Treadmore had chosen him over the other four nominees chosen by the American wizarding population. On paper they had all been more qualified than he was to be one of the most influential wizards in the free world. President Treadmore had never told him.
He was still somewhat surprised by the news that he was bringing to the President. To be honest, with the news surrounding the Potter boy's disappearance, he had thought that the boy would never turn up, let alone be adopted by an Air Force Colonel. When the global wizarding community had started the search for the boy, they had never considered the need to alert the president; the muggle US government had already been looking for him. Now he would have to explain the whole situation to the President.
Stephen turned when he heard the door open.
"Mr. President."
"Secretary Lee," the President greeted him, "how are you?"
"I'm doing rather well sir," said Stephen, "if rather busy."
"Glad to hear it. And the kids?"
"They're fine. My oldest is breezing through her first year at St. Agatha's."
"Good, good." President Treadmore gestured to one of the couches and sat opposite of it. "So tell me what it is that has brought you here so suddenly."
"Well sir," Stephen said, taking a seat, "you've probably heard about the kidnapping of that British boy by two US citizens."
"Harry Potter," the President supplied.
"That's right. Well sir, the boy is in fact a high profile British wizard. He's been something of a celebrity since he was an infant."
"I know," said the President blandly.
"You do," said Stephen, taken aback. He was the President's primary source of information regarding the wizarding world. "That's a surprise, sir."
"Oh, I was surprised when I received a call from Tony asking me to help him stick it to Minister Fudge," said President Treadmore.
Stephen let out a short laugh. "Our congress wouldn't have minded helping. We've never been shy about one-upping their Ministry of Magic."
"Well, we didn't want the boy's disappearance into the US to seem to be anything other than a miscommunication."
"Do you know then, what exactly happened to him?" asked Stephen. It was not often that the President got the chance to brief him on matters of the wizarding world.
"You'll be surprised to know that it had nothing to do with magic."
"You're sure?" asked Stephen.
"Quite. You should also know that we've cleared both suspects," said the President.
"I don't understand; there were eye witnesses," said Stephen.
"Oh, they did the deed," said the President, "but they were being controlled, and the boy really did get caught up by chance."
"What aren't you telling me, sir?" asked Stephen.
"Quite a lot, actually. Unfortunately, it's all classified."
Stephen paused. "We couldn't help but notice that the Colonel is stationed in Cheyenne Mountain." In 1994, the National Magical Monitoring Agency had started to notice odd non-magical readings coming from the mountain. When the matter had been taken to the President, they had been told firmly that the matter was Top Secret, and that they weren't to make further inquiries into the mountain. Of course, it didn't stop the system from picking up the readings, which had become quite regular in the past five years.
"I believe that my predecessor told yours that that's a secret much greater than the magical world," said President Treadmore.
"Yes sir, and we've respected that-" said Stephen.
"And you will continue to do so. We're not dissecting the boy, Stephen. The program has nothing to do with the wizarding world."
"And the adoption?" asked Stephen
"It's legit, and I don't just mean legally," said the President.
"I see. I suppose Colonel O'Neill rescued the boy?" asked Stephen, trying to wrap his head around how Harry Potter had gotten himself adopted by a man who was himself wrapped in intrigue.
"He found him. Though to give credit where it's due, the boy escaped on his own."
"Really? Accidental magic, probably."
The President inclined his head. "Does the boy know what he is?" he asked.
"According to the British investigation, his relatives never told him," said Stephen.
"So, are you going to tell the boy what he is?" asked the President.
Of course the President himself could do nothing to have the boy informed himself. During the war of 1812 the British Ministry had cursed the position of the Presidency to prevent him from revealing the wizarding world to anyone, through any means. The man couldn't even tell Stephen to tell the boy. Out of fervor for American sovereignty, the American Wizarding Congress had attempted to remove the curse many times, but it was pervasive.
"We've decided to hold off on it, actually," said Stephen. "For one thing, the boy likely doesn't need this kind of revelation on top of everything else, and it is standard procedures in the rare cases like these to not immediately let muggles know that they have taken in a wizarding child. We've found that it is best to give them a chance to bond. But also, we'd like to keep this low key. Having the boy is something like having an Ace in the hand. We'd rather the Ministry of Magic not have a chance to contest things until the adoption is old news."
"What will you do until then?" asked the President.
"We'll keep an eye on him," said Stephen. "School records, hospital. Just making sure he's okay, really."
"Sounds like a plan, then," said the President. "So how did you find him?"
"There was an incident, sir. Eight muggle men tried to abduct the boy, again, and they were stopped by a wizard that we haven't been able to identify."
"So it sounds like someone found him before you did," said the President.
"That's right, sir," said Stephen.
"Any suspects?" asked the President.
"Just one, actually. A wizard by the name of Sirius Black, though it's a contentious theory."
"Tell me about it. Is this a British wizard?"
"Yes sir. He's an escaped…" he paused.
"Convict?"
"Well, not…" Stephen searched for the right word "technically, the man was never given a trial. There isn't exactly any doubt about his guilt, but he was never given the chance to defend himself against the charges. He was imprisoned for eight years, and he escaped shortly after the boy disappeared. Black is Harry Potter's godfather. We know from the British investigation that he assaulted the boy's relatives while searching for the boy."
"Forgetting for the moment the fact that the Ministry of Magic threw justice out the door eight years ago, tell me why there's doubt about him being this defender," said President Treadmore.
"It's the man's crimes, sir. Sirius Black was supposed to be one of Voldemort's lieutenants, and among his crimes, he is supposed to have betrayed the Potters to Voldemort, resulting in the boy being orphaned. It was only a miracle that the boy survived that night, so we really can't see any reason for him to be protecting the boy."
"Except that he could be innocent," said the President.
"I suppose so," replied Stephen.
"Here's what I want you to do, Stephen. You're going to launch an investigation into these crimes. I want the truth, no matter how buried it is. After all, why stop with just one ace?"
!
"Wait, what's a kid doing here?" Lieutenant Satterfield asked Lieutenant Elliot. They were the first two to arrive for the day's training mission, and they certainly hadn't expected to find a minor in this part of the military base.
"I don't know," said Elliot. "Hey kid," he raised his voice to reach the kid sitting on the hood of a Humvee. "What are you doing here? This is a restricted area."
The kid jumped down from the hood, brushing his bangs away from his eyes.
"Jack brought me," he said, walking towards the pair. "He said that I could be a part of the exercise today."
"Jack- Colonel O'Neill brought you?" asked Elliot. Why would the Colonel bring a kid to a top-secret training mission?
"Yeah, he said I could play a Tok'ra," said the boy.
"You're not even supposed to know that word," complained Satterfield.
"Well," said the kid, "as I'm a former host, it would be kind of silly for me not to."
"Meet Harry Potter," came the Colonel's voice from behind him, "my adopted son."
Elliot saw the kid smile as he and Satterfield turned to salute the Colonel.
"Sir," they both addressed him.
"At ease, Lieutenants," said the Colonel.
Elliot relaxed his posture. "I didn't realize sir," he said.
"Of course you didn't. We're not in the habit of telling trainees every little detail about the program. It was decided though that including Harry here would help to lend another layer of reality to this training exercise, as well as help him burn off some more energy by bed time."
Elliot heard the kid groan behind him. He turned to the boy.
"So you have what it takes?" he asked.
"Oh I think I could teach you a thing or two."
"I guess I'm looking forward to it then."
"Who's the kid?" came Grogan's voice. The last two members of his team had turned up.
!
This was turning out to be as fun as Harry had hoped. Jack had apparently had the idea back when they had first relocated to the SGC after the incident with Sergeant Siler. Jack had said that it was like paint balling on steroids. Harry had never gone paint balling before, but he assumed that it was exciting.
First had come the background story. The team of Lieutenants had been on a mission with Harry on behalf of the Tok'ra via cargo ship. They had taken fire from a Ha'tak and escaped, but had later crash-landed on another planet. That was all that Harry knew though, because apparently his character got knocked out two seconds after stepping out of the crashed ship in an ambush. He had wanted to protest the likelihood of his being taken like that, but he supposed that that wasn't the point of the exercise. The next thing he knew he was wearing a blindfold and sound muffling earmuffs to simulate an unconscious state, before he was led away.
It was only a few seconds after he arrived at his destination that first the earmuffs and then his blindfold were removed by Lieutenant Haley. He looked around the room they were locked it. The walls and floor were padded, like a crazy house.
"We're in some sort of bunker," said the Lieutenant. "This room is pretty deep under ground, and the walls are pretty thick."
"How about the door?" asked Harry. He wasn't allowed to use any of his abilities, so he couldn't just open a hyperspace window.
"It's strong, with a heavy lock and hinges. If this room's got a weak spot, I wouldn't put my money on the door. Why'd they let you keep your hand device? That doesn't make any sense."
Harry held up his hand. "Fused to my skin," he said.
"Ouch."
"Not really. What else can you tell me?"
"They're industrialized," she said. "They have machine guns, but nothing too sophisticated. I'd put them at about the 1970's, in terms of development."
"We were not around for Earth's 1970's," said Harry, falling into his role as a Tok'ra.
"That's creepy," said Haley. "Right. Rudimentary computers; no Internet. They've mastered the air, the atom, and the electromagnetic spectrum. Fortunately, they won't be able to break the encryption on our radios, except that we of course don't have any. Think your hand device could get through a door that thick?"
"Yeah," said Harry, "but we'd have every guard in this place here by the time I do."
"Right. There's no lock on the inside to try and pick, so I'm thinking we go at this padding, see what's underneath."
Harry never got the chance to weigh in on the plan, because the door opened in that moment. Three men walked in, all in stuffy uniforms.
"You are not from this planet," said the man in the lead, who had the most decorations on his uniform. "We have been through your craft. The technology, and writing in it have no place on our planet. You will tell us everything about your people's designs on this world, and what contact you have made with our enemies. You will reveal to us the secrets of your technology. Obviously, your physiology is similar to ours, and we have ways to make you tell us what we want, if you do not divulge it to us willingly."
While he was talking, Harry positioned himself opposite the door, getting a better look at what was outside.
"No," said Haley, "you have it all wrong. We're here on accident. Our ship was damaged, and we crash landed."
"Do you think that I am a fool? Or that our race is so primitive that we would think that the skies are full of inhabited planets? You were here with a purpose, regardless of how your ship was damaged."
"But you're wrong. Many millennia ago, an ancient race transformed countless planets in this galaxy to support life. Seven thousand years ago, a race of beings took humans like us to different planets across the galaxy. There was still a large chance when we went to the nearest solar system that we wouldn't find a planet that could sustain us, but we got lucky."
"My people have lived on Olanga since our creation. We were not herded like animals. You will begin speaking the truth, or I will kill the boy."
"But he's just a child," said Haley.
"Then he is of no use to us," said the man.
Harry figured that that was his cue. Not seeing a point in further words, he raised his hand device and let out a concussive force that sent the three men into the wall. Haley wasted no time in grabbing one of their intar pistols and shooting them. Two more guards rushed into the room, and Harry used just enough force to knock them over, while Haley shot them.
"So much for diplomacy," she said.
"They had it coming," said Harry.
"He was obnoxious," she agreed, handing Harry two of the pistols, one of which he put in his waistband.
"The Tok'ra do not use weapons such as these," said Harry, keeping to his character. Jack actually had very solemnly taught him everything there was to know about gun safety and marksmanship two weeks prior. It had been an awkward afternoon, and Harry knew that Charlie had likely been heavy on his adopted father's mind.
Haley started out the door and Harry followed her, letting her lead the way.
"Just point and shoot," she said. "The safety's this switch here. Turn it off on the one you're holding now, and don't point it at anything you don't want to kill. Don't forget about the safety if you need to change guns. Got it?"
"Yeah," said Harry. They set off down the hallway that had more rooms like the one they had been kept in. The doors were all open, so they could see that the rest of the team wasn't there.
"There's a guard room at the end of this hallway, behind what seemed like a relatively flimsy door. It was filled with guards when we went through."
"Hinges?" asked Harry.
"They're on the outside."
"I can knock that in."
"Good. Then we'll go in firing."
"I'll go in the lead," said Harry. "My shield should give me at least a little protection." Ironically, real bullets would have gone right through, though a real Tok'ra would have a modern hand device.
"You're the Colonel's son. If I let anything happen to you…"
"What could happen? I could take fifteen hits from an intar and wake up with only a small headache. Besides, right now I'm a Tok'ra."
"Fine," she said.
Harry raised his hand device and let off a sharp blast towards the handle. The door flew open, coming off one of its hinges. He ran in with his shield up, firing his intar into the chaos. It was a couple seconds before the guards inside realized what was happening and started firing back. In that time, Harry took out three of the guards, and Haley another one. The remaining three opened fire with machine guns. Haley was behind Harry, her small stature offering her some protection behind his smaller frame, but right away Harry was struck with five of the red bolts of energy, which had been partially bled off into his shield.
Haley returned fire on the three men as she dove for better cover, while Harry fell to his knees. He moved for cover as his opponents did the same. Haley shot one before he could get behind a fallen table, and Harry pressed himself against the side of a filing cabinet before pulling himself up. He didn't think that he could take another barrage like that without succumbing to its effects. As it stood, they were all behind cover.
Harry called out to Haley, "there's an alarm button by the other door, make sure they don't get to it." He glanced around the cabinet briefly before ducking back from the hail of shots from the guard's intars. One of the men was behind a couch, and the other an over turned table. Working out a quick plan, Harry lowered his shield and stepped out again. He used his hand device to push the couch against the wall, pinning the guard behind it. He swung his arm to the other guard, focusing the concussive energy to meet the oncoming intar shots. He raised his pistol and shot back, striking the man in the chest.
"Duck!" came Haley's voice. Harry dropped to the ground, narrowly missing the red bolts that sailed through the space he had formerly occupied. Haley stepped out and shot the guard that was no longer pinned by the couch.
"That all of them?" asked Harry.
"Yeah," said Haley.
"Right then," said Harry as he got up from the floor. "Onward, I suppose."
They both took a machine gun from the guards and an extra clip before continuing.
"How far under ground are we?" asked Harry.
"Three levels at least. It's not going to be easy getting out of this though. We took stairs down, but they were very public."
"How many people do they have working this?"
"Most of the time it's just the one team, but this isn't the first time they've gone all out. I'm pretty sure they all get a kick out of it."
"Okay." Harry thought about their options. "Hey, wasn't the staircase really narrow?"
"You're not supposed to remember that. You were unconscious at the time."
Harry waved aside that concern. "How do you suppose they got that couch down there?"
"They could have a freight elevator."
"Where would you put an elevator in a place like this?" asked Harry.
Haley considered the question. "You know, I think I saw something on the first floor that could be it. This way." She turned around and went down another corridor. A hundred feet in, the large metal doors were right there with the call buttons on the left.
"Cool," said Harry, pushing the upper button.
A few seconds later, the doors were open, but the elevator was not empty. There were three figures inside, each with a weapon pointed at them.
"Freeze!" said one of them.
"I could say the same to you Lieutenant," said Haley to Lieutenant Elliot.
"Haley, Harry," said Satterfield in surprise.
"So much for our rescue op.," said Elliot.
"Oh I wouldn't mind a larger shield," said Haley, clapping Grogan on the shoulder.
"Come on," said Elliot. "We won't be able to go out the same way we came in."
"What's the plan then?" asked Haley.
"There's a tunnel that leads to the surface, one level down. It's only accessible from the inside."
"Okay then," said Haley. "Down we go."
Harry and Haley joined the group in the elevator. The ride down was brief, and there wasn't anyone waiting for them on floor below. Lieutenant Elliot led them down a couple of hallways before they came to a blank wall.
"Now if our intelligence is right…" he said, before kicking the lower right corner of the wall. Somewhere a latch clicked, and a portion of the brick wall slid aside.
"Our guy didn't say anything about a lock," said Grogan.
"Haley," said Elliot.
Haley stepped forward and examined the lock on the door. "It's five ten-digit tumblers. That's a hundred thousand combinations. I don't see any way of bypassing it."
"What I wouldn't give for a sonic screwdriver," said Satterfield.
"A what?" asked Harry.
"You should know," she said, "you're British."
"Never mind," said Elliot, "think we can shoot it apart?"
"Intars can't impart the necessary kinetic force," said Haley.
"No, but they could have set the thing to break if we shoot at it," said Grogan from where he was standing guard behind them. "You know, give us something to work with."
"All right," said Elliot. "Everyone stand back."
They all backed up as Elliot took aim. He fired five shots with his P-90, and they all heard a loud crack come from the door. The locking mechanism fell from the door, but nothing else happened. Elliot stepped forward to examine the space where the lock had been. "Haley," he said once more.
"I guess it's not deadlock sealed," muttered Satterfield as Haley stepped forward and examined the space. She stuck her hands in.
"I think I got this, but it won't be easy."
Haley was the first to be affected. She grasped the wall as her knees became weak. Harry felt the feeling of light-headedness next.
"Gas," he said, raising his shield against whatever was pumping into the hallway. Haley collapsed as the other three members of the team began to succumb. Harry stepped up to examine what Haley had been doing. He saw the mechanism she had been trying to manipulate. Lowering his shield, he held his breath as he reached in and easily grasped the mechanism that she had been trying to move. There was a hiss of air rushing in from the tunnel as the door opened.
Harry grabbed Halley and pulled her through the door, allowing Elliot and Grogan to carry in a barely conscious Satterfield.
"Come on," said Harry. "We have to out run the gas." They set off, Harry pulling Haley by the arm.
A couple hundred feet into the tunnel Satterfield had recovered enough to move under her own power, and Haley was conscious enough to be supported by Elliot and Grogan.
"Hold on," said Elliot, as they noticed the end of the tunnel coming into sight. "If I were smart enough to rig that door with gas, I would also be smart enough to put people at the door at the other end."
"How'd you get in?" asked Haley groggily.
"It's a little late to go back the way we came in," said Satterfield.
"Do they know you're here?" she clarified.
"Well technically," said Elliot. "But officially, they shouldn't. Our entry was clean."
"You're in no shape to be bait," said Grogan.
"I'm in perfect shape for bait," said Haley. "I'm not much use as anything else."
"Harry will have to go too, or it won't work," said Elliot.
"That's okay," said Harry, "they won't officially know that I have a weapon attached to my arm."
"It's a plan then," said Elliot. "We'll hang back in the shadows."
Harry helped Haley forward and opened the door. He squinted against the bright light and walked out, holding his pistol down so as to seem less threatening. The door led out from a hillside. Ten feet from the exit they were surrounded by a dozen well-hidden men. Harry recognized some of them from their escape from the holding area.
"Drop your weapons," shouted one of the men, who Harry remembered was one of the gate technicians.
Harry and Haley both set their machine-guns on the ground, as well as a pistol each. Harry still had one tucked in the small of his back, and he didn't know if they would find it before the backup arrived.
"Get on the ground," came the order from the shouting gate technician, and Harry helped ease Haley to the ground as he himself lay down. Red flashes started flying over his head just as someone started manhandling him. The man over him stood and turned to face the oncoming fire, and Harry took the opportunity to sweep his legs out from under him. Harry raised his shield as he stood, and he pulled his reserve pistol, firing first on the man on the ground and then everyone else he could set his sights on. Before it was over, he took one shot to the chest, but it wasn't enough to faze him.
"Grogan," came Jack's voice loudly, "why is it that you keep on dying?"
"Sorry sir," Grogan groaned from the ground.
Their enemies were all on the ground recovering from the intar shots. Grogan was the only member of their team who had been shot.
"I have to admit though," said Jack, "you were only the second team to make it out the booby-trapped door."
"What was that gas, sir?" asked Lieutenant Elliot.
"It's a little something we picked up off world. Perfectly harmless, if you don't mind slowly falling unconscious. Now, I am uncharacteristically, yet only barely, satisfied. The four of you were sloppy, but aside from Grogan here, you made it out. We'll just have to see next time if this wasn't a fluke."
"What about me?" asked Harry.
Jack shrugged. "You weren't being evaluated. You were playing a part."
"You don't have anything for me?" asked Harry.
"Well," said Jack, "I've never seen a Tok'ra volunteer to be bait, so you could work on your acting. Really though, you were good in combat, and not just for your first time."
"Cool," said Harry.
"Obviously," said Jack, "the point of this exercise was not diplomacy. Lieutenant Hailey, you get points for trying though. Getting back to sloppy," said Jack, "Lieutenant Elliot, you and your team seemed to enjoy making things harder…"
!
"You didn't have to be mean to them," said Harry on their way back home.
"That wasn't mean," said Jack, "that was encouraging them to suck less."
"You said that only one other team had made it through."
"Sure, but you helped out a little more than the usual 'Tok'ra' helper. I'm not saying they're the worst I've seen. They just need to do better."
"Lieutenant Elliot saw the ambush coming."
"That he did," said Jack with a faint smile, and Harry realized that no one had said how many teams had completed the exercise without everyone being captured "So I got word while the exercise was running. I'm going to have to go off world tomorrow."
"But tomorrow's a Sunday," said Harry.
"I know, and it's nothing dangerous, but an important government official of one of our more annoying allies has died. SG-1's presence has been requested at the funeral."
"Oh," said Harry, not quite sure of what to say about such a thing. "Did you know him very well?"
"Not really," said Jack. "He was pretty condescending in an 'our race was reading at a twelfth grade level while yours was repeating the fifth grade,' sort of way."
"So, you're not upset or anything?"
"He was an okay guy, but like I said, I barely knew him."
"At least no one will be shooting at you this time."
!
"So what did you do over the weekend?" asked Simon.
They always wanted to know what he did when he wasn't around, and half of the time he had to lie.
"Jack took me laser tagging," Harry answered. Sometimes it was only a half lie.
They were at Matt's house, in the boy's large jungle of a room. Jack was off world for the day, but he was supposed to come back and pick him up. His planned mission to an abandoned naquedah mine had been given to another SG team in favor of sending SG-1 back to Tollana. Harry didn't know the details but was glad that it meant Jack would be coming home for the night.
"Aw, cool," said Simon from atop Matt's loft bed.
"We did that once for my birthday," said Andy, who was controlling one of the Mario characters on Matt's GameCube.
"And you just had to bring your little brothers," said Matt.
"My Mom insisted," protested Andy.
"Timmy and Johnny kept crying when anyone shot them," Matt explained to Harry. "It wasn't fair, I'm telling you. Their team almost won, 'cause no one wanted to shoot them."
"You didn't have any trouble shooting them," said Tommy.
"Yeah," said Philip, "you had a little too much fun shooting them."
"I had to make up for you guys," said Matt. Harry wondered what sort of brother Matt would have been. The boy had told him before that the reason his room was so large was that his parents had had the wall between it and the next bedroom over knocked down when it had become clear that they would be unable to have another child.
Thinking about it, he wondered what sort of brother he would have been. He could have been an older brother if his parents had survived, like Andy. Or supposing that Charlie had never died, he could have been someone's younger brother, like Simon. Of course, he probably wouldn't even know Jack if Charlie had never died, he thought morbidly. Philip pulled him out of his suddenly dark thoughts.
"So which one was it?" he asked. "We went to the one close to the high school, Laser Quest."
Shoot, lies were better when you did your research. "Oh, I went to this one down town. I forget the name."
"Oh!" said Simon, "Cyberslugger? I've heard of that place." Harry nodded uncertainly. "Roger went there," Simon continued. "He said they had a really big arcade too.
"Yeah," said Harry, "we played a lot of pinball."
"Pinball?" asked Simon. "I bet they had loads cooler games than pinball. They even have a DDR."
Harry was saved from having to ask what a DDR was when Mrs. Carver entered the room.
"Harry," she said, "your father is here to get you now. Are you ready to go?"
It was still a little weird when people referred to Jack as his father. Harry still just called him Jack.
"Yeah," said Harry, "I'll just get my backpack." He ran over to the corner to pick up his bag, and he waved to his friends. "Bye guys, I'll see you tomorrow."
There was a chorus of 'see you' and 'later Harry,' as he left the room. He went down the stairs quickly, seeing Jack in the entryway below.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey yourself," said Jack. "How was school?"
"It was okay," he said. "We got pizza for lunch."
"That's good," said Jack. He turned to Mrs. Carver. "Have a good day, ma'am. Thank you for watching after Harry."
They left to her assurances that it had been no problem. Jack turned to Harry.
"So things went pretty well today," he said. "It looks like you and Sam are going to have a new toy to play with soon."
Harry smiled.
!
Sam stood next to Narim and Daniel in Travelle's office surrounded by Tollan security, wondering just what effect the Tollan weapons had, and how their new shields would hold against it. Finding out that the Tollan Ion Cannons they were supposed to get were useless against this new Goa'uld shield had been bad. Finding out that the Tollan Curia was colluding with the Goa'uld had been much worse. She caught Daniel's eye and nodded. He nodded back.
She stepped to the side and grabbed the wrist of the guard closest to her, disarming him in only a second. The security guards opened fire and she felt the strange beams of energy impact her shield, but that was all. An elbow to the guard's face put him on the ground, and she opened fire first on Tanith. Her shot was ineffective against his shield. The shield was ineffective against Narim though, who tackled the goa'uld. Trusting the man to at least keep Tanith busy, she opened fire on the rest of the security guards. Daniel was backed into a corner near her, and had covered her while she had been aiming at Tanith.
Apparently taking his queue from Narim, one of the guards tackled her, pulling her to the ground. She quickly blocked a blow he aimed at her mid section, and slugged him in the jaw. She grabbed both his weapon and her own as she stood, shooting one last guard as he tried to leave through the wall, before shooting the man she had punched out.
"Anyone get out?" she asked Daniel.
"No, they're all here."
Travelle still stood, pressed against her own desk.
"Keep her there," she told Daniel, before rushing behind the desk to check on Narim. He sat on the ground with a hand against his head, next to an unconscious Tanith.
"I thought," he said, "that my best chance of rendering him unconscious would be to cause his head to impact the ground unprotected. Unfortunately I forgot about my own."
Sam winced at the blood flowing through Narim's fingers. "That's not too bad, Narim. You did stop him." She fired the Tollan stun weapon at the goa'uld just in case. Turning to Travelle, she said, "you should have done that a while ago."
"You have doomed us all," the woman said, "and to no avail. More security will be here momentarily."
"I don't think so," said Daniel. "They would have already arrived, but I'm guessing you've turned off all monitoring devices in this room."
"This will help nothing," said Travelle.
"No," said Sam, "what will help is if you tell us how to get onto his ship."
"I will not help you to start a battle that we cannot win."
"I will do so, one way or another," said Narim, walking up to them. "They can incapacitate you before you can lock me out of your computer. If you do not help us to board Tanith's mothership, I will fire an ion cannon at the facility that houses the new weapons. That will show our enemies that we do not mean to hold to our end of this bargain. I will do this if I cannot keep those weapons from the goa'uld."
"Our people would all die," said Travelle.
"Perhaps not," he said, "if you help us."
Travelle took a deep breath. "There is a cloaked cargo ship on top of this building. Tanith has been employing the rings."
"How many ships are there?" asked Sam.
"One mothership and three al'kesh. We believe that they are all protected by the same shields."
"We've infiltrated mothership's before," said Sam.
"We've also sent a bomb to one of them," said Daniel, referring to his first expedition through the gate when he had killed Ra.
"Narim," said Sam, "do you think we could deliver one of these new weapons?"
"There is no need for one," he said. "Sizable explosives are housed within the deep space research facility next to us."
"Can you get them here?" asked Daniel.
"No," said Narim, "but the High Chancellor can."
"Your plan would not be able to disable the al'kesh in the same manner," said Travelle. "They would change their shield frequencies the moment they realized what you have done."
"No," said Narim, "we will have to fight our way off of this planet. But if we destroy the mother ship, and all of its death gliders, then we will have more than a chance of escape."
"It would seem that I have no other option," said Travelle.
"You will also create warrants for the entire Curia," said Narim. "Of course arrests will have to wait until after the evacuation."
Travelle only nodded.
"Narim," said Sam. "I know our radio's won't pass through this building, but do you think you can patch us through to Jack and Teal'c?"
"It should not be difficult," he said.
!
"Colonel, do you read me?"
"Sam," said Jack from his hiding spot near the Tollan capitol building. "What's going on at your end?"
"There's a goa'uld mothership in orbit, sir. And three al'kesh. They have shields that can stand up to the Tollan's ion cannons, and Tanith is forcing them to make weapons for him on the behalf of another goa'uld."
"Tanith is alive?" growled Teal'c from next to him.
"Easy there big guy," said Jack. Through his radio he said, "What's your situation?"
"Our shields work very well against the Tollans' stun weapons, sir. We've effectively taken control here, and we have Travelle and Tanith under guard. Security has been lowered around the building; you can walk right in. We have a plan to destroy the mothership, but we need you here soon."
"We'll be there in two minutes. O'Neill out," he released his radio. "Come on," he said to Teal'c.
He and Teal'c left their hiding spot next to a staircase and made their way quickly to the Curia building.
"Now Teal'c, you remember what happened the last time you focused on revenge against that snake."
"Tanith will not escape me again," said Teal'c.
"See? Now see, that wasn't my point," said Jack.
"I will refrain from killing him now, if it would be disadvantageous to our current mission. But Tanith will not be allowed to once more elude my wrath," said Teal'c in his 'none shall escape my wrath' voice.
"If we get the opportunity, we're taking him to the Tok'ra. You can guard him if you want this time, no matter what they say about it."
"But O'Neill-"
"Don't forget, the host volunteered for this. We've got a chance to set him free, we should take it."
Teal'c smoldered as they reached the entrance to the building. "Very well," he said.
The two guards manning the security station eyed them warily, but did not stop them from walking past, towards Travelle's office. Jack looked around once they stepped inside.
"Looks like we missed the party," he said.
"Indeed," said Teal'c darkly as he eyed Tanith's bleeding and unconscious form.
"Sir," said Sam, "we don't know how much time we have. We're having a bomb delivered, but we need to take the cargo ship first. The scanners show that there are two Jaffa on board. Tanith's hand device should allow us to access it."
"Okay," said Jack, feeling somewhat superfluous as a commanding officer, "lead the way. Daniel, Teal'c, hold down the fort in here."
Sam nodded and walked out the door. They kept on alert as they made their way towards the upper levels, lest the security guards revert to their attempts at incapacitating them.
"How's your shield, Major?"
"I don't know how much longer it will last. I took at least fifteen hits back in Travelle's office."
"Any idea how these things compare to a zat?"
"Narim says that they don't pack as much of a punch, but it's still hard to say how much my shield can still take without knowing how the weapons work. I'd try the hand device, but I don't know how it might react with my own shield."
"I'll go in first then. It shouldn't be a problem with only two Jaffa." They reached the roof. "We sure this thing is here?"
"Yes sir. The Tollan's sensors can see through the cloak. They just didn't want anyone to actually spot it visually."
"Got it," he said.
"Here goes," said Sam as she pressed the jewel on the hand device. The cargo ship shimmered into view and they ran up to it. The mere presence of the hand device allowed them entry through the door. Jack walked in, his weapon outstretched. The first Jaffa he was able to take by surprise. He took a zat blast before he stunned the other.
"Okay," said Jack, "that was easy."
"We'll have to thank Harry when we get home," said Sam.
Jack went on his radio. "We're ready up here."
"Okay," came Daniel's voice, "we're sending the bomb up now."
"After that Colonel," came Narim's voice, "I am asking that you and your team leave, and return to Earth through the Stargate."
"Narim," said Sam, into her radio, "we can help you with this fight."
"There is little that you would be able to do after this," said Narim. "More importantly though, I cannot ask anything more of you. The Tollan people can ask nothing of you. Once the mothership is destroyed, I will destroy the weapons that have been created. Earth will be safe."
"Jack, Sam." Daniel's voice came from the door. "We've got the thing." He was accompanied by a Tollan man who was controlling a hovering platform, which held the bomb.
"Put it on the rings," sad Jack.
"I have given the device a three second delay," said the Tollan man. "It would be wise to not delay in it's delivery."
"Got it," said Jack.
The man activated the bomb and Jack put in the command to send it up. A few seconds later, Narim's voice came over the radio. "I can confirm the destruction of the mothership, I am firing upon the facility now."
"All right," said Jack, "time to go." He spoke through his radio. "Teal'c, head to the gate. Take Tanith with you."
"Sir," said Sam, "we can still help here."
"You heard the man, Major. This isn't our fight, and we're not exactly equipped to handle three al'kesh."
"We can still do something."
"No, we can't. Now get to the gate, that's an order."
She followed him out of the cargo ship and ran with him out of the building. He knew that he would feel bad later. The Tollans were generally the most moralistic people he knew, next to the Nox. He also knew that Sam had feelings for Narim, though he had never let on. But a sad Sam was better than a dead one. There was nothing else to be done.
They were the only ones running to the gate. In the chaos around them, it seemed as though the Tollans all knew what to do in an attack like this, and the plan had nothing to do with a handful of people running away through the gate.
Scratch that. As he approached the gate, he saw a group of children begin to appear through one of the Tollan transport pads. There were no adults with them, only older children leading the younger ones.
"Keep going," he told Sam as he altered his course towards the group. Ahead of them, the gate was active, and Teal'c stood by it with Tanith over his shoulders. He approached one of the older children as the ground began to shake. An al'kesh was making a bombing run over the city. The boy couldn't have been more than fifteen.
"What's your plan," he asked the boy.
"There is a planet we are to go to. We know the coordinates."
"No time," said Jack. His GDO had already flashed green, confirming that the wormhole was to Earth, and that the iris was open. "Send them through now; they'll be safe on Earth. You can meet up with your people later."
The boy looked uncertain but he nodded and turned to his charges.
"All of you, go through the gate now," he addressed them. "We must hurry."
Jack ran with them to the gate, radioing ahead to the SGC.
"General," he said, "we've got refugees coming through. No injuries yet, all children."
"I copy that," said General Hammond.
Jack motioned for the rest of his team to go through the gate, as he himself took a position next to it, watching the procession of children stretching back to the transport pad where they were still coming through. Looking up he saw the al'kesh making it's way towards them, the massive bolts of plasma making louder and louder booms as it approached.
The pad suddenly stopped sending through children, though Jack was sure that there had to be more. This seemed to be a signal to some of the adolescents nearer the pad, and perhaps knowing that they would not make it to the gate before the al'kesh got there, they began sending their younger charges through the pad again, to some other escape contingency. There were too many that wouldn't make it though.
"Damn it," said Jack as he ran out as far as he dared and scooped up two of the younger children as he ran back to the gate. He shoved the two through the gate and turned around. The al'kesh was nearly on top of them, and he stood there feeling entirely useless without so much as a P-90 to fire back with. It was the blast that sent him through the gate.
Jack flew backward, but was saved from a major head wound by the soft bodies he landed on. A couple children landed on top of him as the event horizon of the wormhole began to destabilize. Only one other child came flying through as the wormhole flickered, the teen girl's clothes singed from the blast. The wormhole collapsed.
"What happened?" asked the General as he pushed through the sea of children. Medics had all ready rushed to those injured in the blast, and its backlash through the gate. Jack stood up shakily, dazed from the blast and breathing heavily. His ears still rang, and he stared at the General blankly.
"The older ones could have escaped," he said. "They didn't go. They put the little ones on first."
"Jack," said the General, "what was the situation before you came through the gate?"
Jack took a deep breath and paused. His eyes focused on the General this time. "There was an al'kesh coming, it had destroyed a good bit of the city. It headed straight for the gate though. I don't know what the Tollan's were doing while the kids were evacuating. There were at least thirty of them left though, by the time it got there."
General Hammond nodded. "Get yourself down to the infirmary Jack, let them look you over there. I'll have Major Carter give me a preliminary briefing."
Jack thought he should have protested that, but he only nodded instead.
!
It was three days before they heard from the Tollans again; the children had already been sent through to the planet they had originally planned on. They were contacted by a man that Jack would vaguely remember from his visits to the Tollan capitol. The Tollans had taken heavy losses while evacuating their planet, though the majority of them had managed to flee. When Sam asked after Narim, they learned that he had died in the skies over Tollana.
The man had piloted the cloaked cargo ship with another three bombs in the hold. Knowing that they would not be able to follow the moving al'kesh on their own, he had flown along side one of them, and used the Tel'tak's shield to slightly destabilize the shield of the al'kesh before detonating the devices. They had been enough to destroy the ship, and to give his people a chance to escape.
In light of the devastating attack and subsequent evacuation, the new Tollan leader decided to cut ties with the rest of the galaxy. Their last public act was to send through the Stargate, and through the iris, a device that would prevent phase shifting devices from passing through the it again. Apparently they felt that it was owed to the people of Earth.