Many, many apologies for the late update to this story - HUGELY busy few weeks here at Naquadah Mansions! Hope this chapter was worth the wait.
Chapter 9 Cogs Begin to Move
The George Hammond waited patiently in orbit around Dakara. It had been four days since they had last seen the Ha'tak, hovering over the desert to the west of the city.
Wherever Athena was, she was being very quiet – there had been neither sight nor sound of her.
Sam suspected that the Gou'ald was somewhere mustering support from among the ex-Jaffa and inhabitants of various worlds. People such as Laylun, the young man who had known Vala.
The Tok'ra over by Chulak had not seen Athena at all, so wherever she was, it wasn't there.
Mitchell and his team, down hiding in the bushes on the Gou'ald's home planet, had seen nothing either. Initially the Colonel had been worried that the Ha'tak would show up without giving the Hammond time to get there but Sam reassured him. Her ship was the fastest thing in the galaxy - the best that Athena could hope for, should she arrive undetected, was an hour or so before the SG teams and Tok'ra got their backup in the shape of the X-304.
- o - o - o - o - o - o -
Vala was close to using the ring transporter to escape down to the surface. She didn't care how much trouble she got into – bored was not a word which even began to cover the total and absolute unrelenting tedium she was experiencing. And the Tok'ra! Vala had always felt that she had to be on her best behavior around them, after all they had saved her, in a fashion. Even though they were the most boringly boring of all boring races….ugh!
If they tell me once more about the bravery of their two operatives down in Athena's palace I'm going to throw up! Vala thought, uncharitably. Blah blah blah. Yes, they're undoubtedly brave. But I don't need to have it rammed down my throat every five minutes, thank you very much! She lay down on her small bedding roll in a tiny store room that had been allocated her on the Al'kesh. The interior of a Gou'ald sarcophagus would be bigger, she thought crossly.
One of the Tok'ra walked past as she lay on her back with her feet propped up against the wall – Vala grinned a wide, false grin at him. Bet they're all talking about me, she mused, glumly. Probably saying how mean I was when I was host to Qetesh. Pffft! At least I had an excuse. What's their excuse for boringness?
And of course, the lack of action was doing nothing to help her come to terms with her regret over not telling Daniel how she felt, before he had left the SGC.
o – o – o – o – o –
The archaeologist had spent the last four days berating himself for declaring his love to Vala in the gateroom.
Poor woman – she'd spent the previous day either back in the body of Qetesh or sleeping off the experience, like some giant hangover, in the infirmary. It was probably the last thing that she'd wanted to hear at such a time, he thought sadly. Perhaps it was the last thing that she wanted to hear at any time. Daniel frowned. Had he misread things between them? Even after all these years? He knew now that he'd missed her immensely, but had she really felt the same? Why hadn't she spoken?
He shook his head. No – she did feel something, he'd seen it in her face, felt it as he held her. Maybe she just didn't want to admit it, to act on it. After all, she'd always tried to lead him on before, when they worked together. Daniel carried on thinking similar miserable, regretful thoughts like these while he waited with Mitchell and the rest of the team.
And Mitchell, stuck in the middle between Laurel and Hardy once again, just shook his head and decided that if they all got out of this mess he was going to lock Daniel and Vala in a room and leave them both inside there until they came out married!
o – o – o – o – o –
It was late on the evening of the fourth day, just as the Dakaran sky was lit up by a gorgeous crimson sunset, that Major Marks' voice suddenly crackled over the intercom.
"Colonel Carter to the bridge please. Colonel Carter to the bridge."
Sam quickly drained the last few gulps of her juice before pushing her chair out and walking quickly but calmly towards her command centre. She knew as soon as she got through the door that this was it.
Marks looked over at her, a faint air of excitement hanging about him. "Ha'tak," he told her. "Just come out of subspace. About ten kliks away."
Sam moved to the long window at the front of the bridge – sure enough, there it was, hanging like some giant Christmas bauble in the sky. The gold markings of the ship glowed gently in the light from the setting sun – it almost looked beautiful, if you could forget who's ship it was. Before Sam could say anything the Ha'tak immediately pulled away, soaring up into the atmosphere.
"You think that she's going home, Colonel?" Marks asked, as they all watched it head higher and higher.
"Let's hope so." Sam didn't even give the order to start the engines on the Hammond – not yet, not until the chance of Athena guessing what they were up to had passed. Only a few seconds later and the monitor on the bridge showed the other ship disappearing into subspace.
"Colonel?" Marks asked.
"Absolutely, Marks. Let's go." Sam felt a tingle of excitement spread throughout her body as the sound of the Hammond's engines humming quietly into life spread throughout the ship.
Within moments of being summoned by radio, Teal'c appeared in the Temple courtyard wearing his combat vest and BDU pants.
The Jaffa materialised a second or two later on the bridge, brought up by transport beam. He bowed. "ColonelCarter."
"Teal'c." Sam nodded. "Are you ready?"
"I am ready."
Major Marks' hand was hovering over the controls.
Sam went and sat down in the Captain's chair. "Take us into subspace," she said. A few seconds later the ship was gone from Dakara and on it's way to battle.
o – o – o – o – o –
Mitchell and the SG teams down on the planet had no warning before the Ha'tak suddenly appeared directly above Athena's palace, about half a klik from where they were hiding on a low rise. The two personnel on watch came slipping back through the long grass to report in, but the Colonel had already seen the ship appear.
The palace itself was an unusual, long, low building – shaped like an 'L' and surrounded by dense foliage. The Ha'tak looked as if it was descending into a courtyard on the far side of the building from the SGC base camp. As Mitchell watched, numerous Jaffa and other members of Athena's guard began to hurry out from the palace in the direction of the ship.
Mitchell ducked low and moved as close as he could to the edge of the hillock – camouflaged by the trees around him he carefully lifted a pair of binoculars up to his eyes. Yep – plenty of scurrying minions, he thought to himself, lots of hustle and bustle. Looks like her ladyship is coming ashore at last. He hoped that the four cloaked Tok'ra ships up in orbit around the planet had seen the Ha'tak's arrival – as soon as he contacted them and broke radio silence the Colonel had absolutely no doubt that the Gou'ald and her forces would be on to them.
Mitchell watched and waited – he wanted Athena inside her palace before anything started. After a while the Colonel saw the unmistakable sight of Charlotte Mayfield – aka Athena – appear on his side of the palace, surrounded by courtiers, soldiers and various other servants. Mitchell chuckled – her soldiers' were all dressed in either Jaffa attire or other medieval like robes, whereas the woman herself clicked along on four inch stiletto heels in a smart skirt suit. He watched as they all entered the palace and disappeared from view, only a few men remaining on guard duty outside of the palace. At the moment, it was all going to plan.
o – o – o – o – o –
Vala stood with her arms folded on what passed for a bridge, aboard the cloaked Al'kesh. They had seen the Ha'tak come out of subspace very close to themselves, but the Asgard cloaking technology had kept them hidden and the other ship had glided past on it's way to the planet.
The Tok'ra captain of the Al'kesh – a woman named Vielkah – was poised attentatively at the controls, waiting for the Hammond to arrive. Six other Tok'ra, plus other races loyal to their cause were also on board the ship. The three Tel'taks' were somewhere close by, their own shields firmly in place.
Vala chewed her lip, eyes large and apprehensive. She felt butterflies start in her stomach and wing their imaginary selves all throughout her midriff. She watched as the Ha'tak began to sink slowly through the atmosphere and head for the planet below. Daniel was down there – with Mitchell – the planet where that bat-crazy so-called Gou'ald priestess was headed. Vala sincerely hoped that Sam was on her way – she was beginning to get a bad feeling about all this.
o – o – o – o – o –
Time passed. Daniel checked his watch for about the eighth time in five minutes. Only twenty minutes since Athena's ship had landed. Where were Sam and the Hammond? Surely they should have been here by now? Jamming his hands deep into his pockets, he resisted the urge to look at his watch yet again. He hoped that Vala was alright, up there on the Alkesh. Of course she was, they would have heard if anything had happened. Wouldn't they? Daniel looked skywards, before closing his eyes and dropping his head. The plan seemed like a good one. At the moment. But then – they often did. Barely registering, he checked his watch again.
o – o – o – o – o –
It happened with no warning whatsoever. It usually did, in Mitchell's humble opinion. His radio inexplicably burst into life – Vielkah was speaking fast and furiously from up on the Al'kesh. She spoke as a host, not Tok'ra.
"One of the Tel'taks has just exploded!" she had an edge of panic to her voice but was clearly endeavouring to stay calm. "Without warning – it just blew up in front of us! There is debris all around – it's falling to the earth. Athena must have seen it."
Even as she finished speaking the sight of the exploding ship could be seen from the ground – when Mitchell looked upwards he could see a huge fireball in the early evening sky.
Vielkah was still talking. "Our cloak is holding but…" the transmission crackled furiously as the Colonel heard other voices breaking in from the background. "Colonel Mitchell," the Tok'ra woman resumed – she sounded shocked. "Another of our ships is gone!"
"There!" Daniel pointed but Mitchell could already see debris from the catastrophe beginning to fall to earth. At the same time, on the ground, Jaffa began to pour out of the palace in all directions. More headed toward Athena's Ha'tak.
"It's the other ship!" Vala's voice sounded over the comm.. "It's the other bloody Tel'tak, you idiots! You've got a Gou'ald agent over there – he just fired on the other ship!"
"Vala, get out of there!" Mitchell yelled into his radio. He began to run towards his own team who were assembling, startled but organised, just inside the treeline. He heard Vala say "Get out of the way!" then the sound of something exploding close by her.
"Vala! Vala!" Daniel was on his own radio now – no point in trying to keep radio silence. "Vala!"
An interminably long pause, filled with shouts and the sound of further explosions, was eventually broken. "I'm here! Vielkah's injured, I'm in the driving seat!" Vala sounded breathless. "They're firing on us, our shields and cloak are down. I'm taking evasive procedures – we'll have to come back when we've lost them."
Daniel looked up, just in time to see the Al'kesh plummet towards the ground, closely followed by the hostile Tel'tak, both ships now clearly visible to everyone on the ground. The Al'kesh came so low that it almost skimmed the trees, before swinging about suddenly and shooting upwards again.
Nice one, Daniel thought, as the enemy ship overshot and took longer to come back into position. By that time Vala had taken the Alkesh out into space, leading the Tel'tak and it's unknown Gou'ald spy away from the planet.
At the same time the Hammond appeared ten or so kliks away, but the Ha'tak was already up and firing. Sam had to move her huge ship away from the small villages and innocent people directly below, subsequently the 304 took several hits before they could return fire. By that time the Hammond's front defence shield was down.
"Mitchell!" Sam summoned her fellow Colonel on the radio, her face set. "Mitchell, we're going to have to pull back – we need to fix that shield! I'm sorry!"
"Don't sweat it, Sam!" P-90 at the ready, he prepared to lead his team towards the rapidly approaching Jaffa guardsmen. "We'll see you as soon as you can get back."
There was no answer – Sam had already taken the Hammond back into subspace to find somewhere safe to stop and repair the forward shield.
Daniel's face was grim as he and Mitchell shared a look. Then without further speech the Colonel lifted his weapon and led SG teams 13 and 19, plus the archaeologist, towards the oncoming enemy.
TBC...