Chapter 10: Moonbeams and Explosives

"So, what do you think this 'moon beam' is?" Sam asked Daniel.

"I have no idea," answered Daniel.

"Colonel?"

"Jack," he corrected, knowing very well she wanted his opinion and wanting to dodge the question. "While we're here, I'm Jack. You're Sam. 'Carter' is Andrew, and 'Colonel' is Hogan. Remember?"

"Okay," Sam drug the word out, "what do you think this 'moon beam' is, Jack?"

"No clue. Unless the aliens of RZQ-132 realized they screwed up and come back for us."

Sam contemplated that suggestion. "I guess it's possible. Teal'c?"

"I am unaware of any technologies that could be described as a 'moon beam', Major Carter."

"Well, it's not literal, Teal'c. You have to think in poetic terms, here. Just like a death glider's weapons might be described as 'lightning bolts' because they're harmful energy from the sky."

"I would not describe Goa'uld weapons as 'moonbeams' under any circumstances. Even if I were writing a poem."

Jack tried not to laugh at the idea of Teal'c writing a poem.

Sam harrumphed, stumped.

"Maybe it's a ring device," Jack threw out.

"They do look like a white beam of light from far away," conceded Daniel.

"And we are supposed to disappear into it," agreed Sam.

"So, if we're getting ringed away from here, we don't need to worry about our exit strategy. We can focus on helping Hogan."

"What about finding the ring platform, sir?"

Jack shrugged. "I thought if a ship had a set of rings, you didn't have to have them on the ground. After all, there've been plenty of times we've used the rings without the platform."

"Name one, Jack," Daniel challenged in a doubtful tone of voice.

"Well, let's see. There was the time the Tok'ra beamed us on board their ship during the evacuation, and the time Teal'c and I took that leap of faith out of the X-301..."

"Okay, sir, point taken. A ring platform, although helpful, is not absolutely necessary. So we can focus on helping Colonel Hogan."

"And how are we doing that?" queried Daniel.

"Blowing something up for him, I think," Sam said.

"What, blowing up a mother ship wasn't enough for you, Major?" asked Jack, forgetting his own rule about using names at Stalag 13.

"What's this?" said a voice from the doorway. "Blowing up a ship? Whose mother's ship? When?"

"Uh..." Sam groped for words, unaware anyone had been approaching their underground room.

"Not that long ago, but you won't hear about it," Daniel said, pushing his glasses further up on his nose.

"And it's classified," added Jack, sure that would stop Carter from asking any more questions.

"Was it a big explosion?" the sergeant asked eagerly.

"Very." Sam smirked, thinking it might just be possible that her Grandpa was a lot more interested in blowing things up when he was younger.

"What did you use? Was it very volatile? Did you make it yourself?" queried Andrew. He rushed on without giving her a chance to answer, "I've been experimenting with different materials. Sometimes I have trouble controlling the viscosity. Do you ever have that problem?"

"Uhh..." Oh, yeah, he was definitely more interested in blowing things up as a youngster, Sam thought. "I usually don't have to make my own explosives."

"Oh, that's too bad." Andrew looked crestfallen for a moment. Then he brightened. "Would you like to try it out? It's really fun!"

"Um," Sam looked at her teammates; wouldn't that be going against the idea of not affecting things?

Jack gave her a friendly push. "Go for it Sam! You can't just sit on this cot like a bump for a few weeks!"

Sam grinned widely as she and Andrew started to leave the room. Just a few seconds later, though, Andrew popped his head back into the room they were in.

"I'm sorry, sir, I completely forgot that I was coming to get you! Colonel Hogan would like to see you upstairs."

Before they could reply, he'd ducked back out of the room. As the other three members of SG-1 started to go upstairs, they heard the two Carters chattering animatedly about chemicals further down the tunnel.

When they got to the part of the tunnel where the ladder came down, Daniel and Jack found themselves staring at each other's perplexed faces.

"Do you know how to get the ladder down and the top up?"

"Nope," Jack replied. "You?"

"Nope."

"Teal'c?"

"I am unaware of how this mechanism functions, O'Neill."

"Guess we'll just have to wait then."

"How long, do you suppose?"

"Not too long; if Rob wants to talk to us, or to me, he'll probably send someone else to find us if we don't show up pretty soon."

"Okay. So, do you really think that's it? That all we have to do is blow something up?"

"I think it's going to boil down to some very precise timing," Jack answered.

"Indeed," agreed Teal'c.

"We don't just want to blow something up," Jack continued. "We want to do it when we can alibi Hogan, too."

"Oh, that makes more sense."

The three men waited in silence for a few minutes.

"So," Daniel asked his natural curiosity exerting itself, "Do you think that Hogan would let us take a tour of this place? I haven't seen much, but from the hints that you and Sam have been dropping, it's bound to be a pretty interesting place. Equipping escaping POWs and defectors to go back to England, sabotage, an-"

He stopped speaking abruptly and ducked to the side to avoid being hit as the ladder swung down against the wall. Looking up, they saw Newkirk starting to swing himself over the edge of the bunk.

"Is there a way to do that from down here?"

Newkirk froze with one leg on the ladder and one leg on the floor in the barracks. He looked down at the three men just as Jack waved up at him.

"Uh, you just bang twice... and we'll open it from up here," he stammered. " Where's Carter? He was supposed to bring you up; the Guv'nor wants to see you."

"He took Sam off to play with explosives," Daniel offered helpfully as he climbed up the ladder.

Newkirk grinned. "Ruddy fool. First bird we've seen in at least two months, and he drags her off to talk about blowing things up." He rolled his eyes. "Let's just hope it's just talk, because if he starts fiddling with his bleedin' potions and blows her up, I'm going to be right upset."

"Don't worry," Jack assured the Englander. "Carter won't let him blow up anything they don't mean to blow up."

"Wot's that?"

"Carter- uh, Sam, knows her way around explosives well enough to make sure nobody gets blown up," clarified Jack.

"She likes explosives? Blimey, she's as crazy as he is! Here now, Colonel," Newkirk said with a wave of his hand at the door, "Colonel Hogan said you can just walk right on in." Turning to the other two, he added, "And perhaps I could convince the two of you to play me another hand or three of poker, eh?"

"Why not?" answered Daniel as he took a spot at the table.