A/N: Big, big updates. Okay. First off, I am VERY sorry about the lack of updating. School's been crazy, life's been worse and work's somewhere in between. I don't know if me updating individual chapters shows up, but in case they don't I basically went through all the chapters once more to read them and add things here and there, because when I sat down to finally write this again, I realized I didn't remember what was going on in the story anymore. That being said, only the first chapter really got stuff changed around, so you won't have to re-read anything. I do have the rest pretty outlined-out and all, and have begun writing it, so it will all be up soon. There's not much left. Sorry, again, and I hope everyone enjoys a new chapter!
... I also ran into issues while trying to re-upload chapters... so if everyone got updates for EVERY. SINGLE. CHAPTER. again... I'm sorry... -mirage24
Chapter 11
With most of the situation figured out, minus finding the Goa'uld still aboard the ship, Captain Oliver Hudson ordered Ensign Wolenczak and Major Carter to finish working out their plan to get home. In truth, Hudson didn't want to prolong it any longer than necessary. The longer they remained in 2032, over two decades outside their own time, the more they were at risk of completely erasing the future.
When they reached the answer to their solar flare problem only a mere two hours after Bent's capture, both Carter and Lucas were less than happy.
"Twenty minutes? We only have an twenty minutes?" Carter asked, coming to stand over Lucas at his work station. "That can't be right."
He slid his chair to the left to give her room to take a better look. "It is. You guys have to get ready to go."
She shook her head. "There's a Goa'uld still loose on the boat. We're going to help you find her."
"We've had weirder," he said off-handedly, sliding his chair back in front of the work station.
"Weirder?" Carter questioned.
"Uh, yeah," he said, unsure of how much information to divulge, although he wanted to give her enough to convince her it was true. "Giant squid, crazy primeval alien, glowing fish poo, the ghost of an Atlantean—and that's just what's happened inside the boat."
Both her eyebrows rose. "Oh. Well. Wow." She laughed once. "That's up there with the time we've all swapped bodies, when we were cloned into robots, travelled back in time to 1969—oh, and this one time we got stuck in a time-loop."
"Ooh, a good competition indeed," Lucas conceded.
"You should tell your Captain," she said. "I'll go find the Colonel."
"Remember, you only have about fifteen more minutes."
"Don't worry about it, we'll make it."
Somehow, he wasn't so sure.
Carter made it all the way to the Bridge before she realized something was wrong. It was far too quiet for a sub currently looking for an intruder. When she went to go through the clam doors, she realized they weren't open.
She looked to the panel that she'd seen Hudson use to open the doors half a dozen times and tried to combination. Nothing.
What the hell?
Sam depressed the key on the panel that allowed her to speak with the Communications Station. "This is Major Carter, is Colonel O'Neill on the Bridge? I need to speak with him."
Again, nothing.
"Hello?"
When she received no response for the third time, she backtracked to the lab Lucas was working in, startling the young Ensign.
"You already found him?"
She shook her head as she said, "Something's going on on the Bridge. Can you check it out from here?"
She didn't really need to ask, as he was already on it. His fingers flew across the keyboard, bringing up one of the many security cameras on the Bridge. "Not good."
Sam peered in closer to see Alaron on the Bridge, holding it hostage. All of the crewmen were in the middle of the room, sitting on the floor.
"Not at all. Can we get in there another way, Ensign?"
He thought for a moment, one side of his head raising. "Not that I can think of that she wouldn't have already blocked off. Our best bet is to try to make contact."
"Then do it."
He nodded.
"You don't want to do this," Brody told Alaron.
"And why not? I've got this boat right where I want it. All that's left is to surface her," she said, going over to the correct console. "In about thirty minutes, I'll be home free."
"Except for the fact that you've left the two geniuses on the boat to roam free. One knows the Goa'uld and the other knows the ship," Jack pointed out. "It's only a matter of time."
"But how are they going to get onto the Bridge? Not that they would risk your lives anyway."
"To protect this boat, they will," Hudson countered.
She waved him off. "A different matter entirely. I need the boat in-tact. The seaQuest isn't going anywhere but up." She pressed a few keys on the proper console and the sub shifted and began rising.
"At our current depth it'll take the time you have left before the next solar flare window to get yourselves home, at which point I'll be free to kill you and the great SG-1 will be no more. The System Lords will rise again and—"
"Oh cut the melodramatic crap, please!" Jack shouted. "No one cares!"
"This is Wolenczak calling the Bridge." Lucas and Sam's picture appeared on a screen via vidlink connection. "Sorry for overriding security protocols, sir. I figured this was an okay time to do that."
"Understood," Captain Oliver Hudson said.
"What do you want?" Sam asked.
"To surface the seaQuest and take SG-1 with me, of course."
"It's not gonna happen," Lucas said, typing away.
Alaron's hand hovered over a panel. "Want to test that theory, Ensign Wolenczak."
"What's that she's got her hand over?" Sam asked.
"The ballasts," Lucas replied. "I'm trying to override it in case she tries to blow them but—"
"Let me out of here with the Shol'va and you all will live," Alaron said. "Deal?"
"I don't think so, lady," Jack said, forcing himself up into a standing position.
Captain Hudson followed suit, along with Brody, Ford and Piccolo. Surely with the five of them, they could take a single Goa'uld, even with the hands tied behind their backs.
But before they could make a single further move, Alaron slammed her hand down on the button. The ballasts blew and the entire boat rocked with the force, knocking the men off their feet. Alaron ran toward the clam doors, opening them and ran out of the Bridge.
When Sam and Lucas recovered their respective footings, they were out of the lab. Sam headed toward the Bridge and Lucas toward the only exit off seaQuest—Launch Bay.
Sam entered the Bridge effortlessly this time, running to Colonel O'Neill first, who was more pissed than anything else. She helped them out of their bonds and the crewmen rushed to their stations, trying to balance out the sub.
"Sir…"
"I know Carter. We'll be finding another way home."
She looked at him apologetically. He responded with, "We're going to the Brig. I'm willing to bet she's headed there or MedBay for Teal'c."
"I got MedBay," Daniel said, running off with Piccolo who was his back up.
"The Brig?"
"She can't be happy with Bent knowing what's going on, either. He's part of the reason she got caught."
As Carter, O'Neill and Hudson converged on the Brig, the already knew something was amiss. It wasn't until they came upon Bent's dead body in his cell that they knew Jack's original guess was right.
He turned to Hudson. "Is there another way off this tub?"
"Launch Bay," Sam said. "Lucas was headed there—"
Hudson turned abruptly and ran out the room, the PAL already in his hand.
Ensign Lucas Wolenczak stood in between Alaron and the launch she was trying to hijack to the surface. He was determined not to let her pass, but realized that if she could not only catch three-fourths of SG-1 off guard and then take them in a fight, he stood as no threat to her. It's not that he was tiny, he just wasn't as built as the rest of the guys. Wasn't as trained. And he had no gun.
"Move out of the way."
"You don't even have Teal'c," he pointed out. "What do you hope to gain by running away now?"
"My life? What are you going to do to stop me?"
"This is the Bridge. All hands brace for surface impact in less than a minute," Communications Officer Tim O'Neill's voice came over the ship-wide frequency.
Alaron smirked. "Now I won't even need the Launch."
A puzzled look crossed the young Ensign's face. "Meaning what?"
"Don't let her touch her wrist device!" Jack shouted as he came into Launch Bay with the Captain and Carter in tow.
"Wha—" but even as he asked, he saw the Goa'uld reach for it. He lunged at her, aiming to grab her hand away from her wrist, be ended up falling with her.
The wrestled for a few moments before she thew him off of her and across Launch Bay, where he landed with a loud thud on the other side of the room. Carter ran to him and checked his pulse as Jack took the Captain's side-arm and aimed it at Alaron.
She pressed the large button on her wrist device milliseconds before Jack pulled back on the trigger, her body beaming upwards into thin air before the laser grazed her body.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Jack said, walking over to pick up a second wrist device Alaron had dropped. Overkill much?
"How is he?" Hudson asked Carter.
"Breathing. Knocked out cold but he'll be fine."
Hudson pulled out his PAL. "Med team to Launch Bay. Bridge, report."
"Stabilized before breaking the surface. I have McGath on the line for you, wondering what the hell is going on," Ford responded.
"Tell him I'll take the call in ten minutes in the Ward Room. Say nothing about SG-1 or what just happened. Tell him we were running a training run if you have to."
"Aye, sir. Bridge, out."
"That was a close call," Hudson continued after his conversation with Ford had ended.
"She still got away."
"But she won't come back, Colonel."
"And we can't get home," Carter said.
"Excuse me?"
"Lucas and I found a flare. The window expires in about thirty seconds."
"So she knew?"
"No, probably not. But that's not the point."
"There's got to be another way back," Jack said. "Think, Carter."
"The solar flare was the only way back we have! We're on Earth. We can't gate back to it!" she said loudly, forcefully so that the Colonel would get the point. "We. Have. No. Way. Back."
"Think about it, Carter. That's an order."
She bit her lip, took a breath to check her frustration, and replied a forceful, "Yes, sir."
