The whole base was on alert looking for three missing children. The marines who were guarding every exit thought that they were having a joke played on themas looking for children on the secret underground military base was not the most usual thing to happen but not many usual things happened in that place.

Cian, Alex and Jamey, however, were not looking to escape through any of the exits, by this time they knew that everyone must be searching for them and had just narrowly escaped a marine patrolling the corridor by jumping into a store cupboard.

"This is great Alex, now what are we going to do?" Jamey asked.

Alex had her ear up against the door listening forthe oppotune moment to run out and miss the guard "Shhhh"

Jamey rolled his eyes "We're never going to get out that way now, we're cornered! Just give up,"

Alex glared at Jamey "Do you ever shut up!" Alex whispered "We will get out this way,"

"I don't think so,"

"Shut up, they'll hear your big mouth,"

"No, I can talk if I want to-"

"How about getting out that way?" Cian spoke up pointing at a large vent in the top corner of the room. Both Alex and Jamey looked at each other and then the vent.

"Jamey will never fit Cian," Alex said. Jamey was tall. Extremely tall. Alex would be able to, she would be just the right size and there was no question as to whether Cian would fit.

"I'll stay behind, you two go and report back to me what you find," Jamey smiled. Alex nodded excitedly then made her way to Cian in the corner.

"We need a screwdriver or something to take off the panel," Cian said. Alex bit her bottom lip in worry, where were they going to find a screwdriver. Cian, however, seemed to have fixed that problem and had already taken out the first screw.

"How'd you do that?" Alex asked.

"I'm using a coin," Cian said. He was placing the coin in the nook in the screw and twisting it until they came off. That boy was resourceful.

They quickly had the panel off and Cian gave Alex a leg up into the vent, Jamey was watching fascinated that the little boy had managed to lift her up and climb into the vent by himself without any help. Cian gave a little salute to Jamey and a promise to come back then crawled off after Alex.

OoOoOoOoO

"Give what to you?" Clone Jack asked.

The Ashrak visibly fumed, steam coming out of his ears. "Do not play dumb with me you ignorant child, I heard every word of your conversation. Now, hand the communicator over to me!"

"What communicator?" Jack asked, deciding he liked seeing this guy angry, it was funny. If he did want them alive, he couldn't kill them right? As if the Ashrak heard Jack's thoughts the Ashrak turned to Jack.

"This weapon you see attached to my arm will not kill but get on the wrong side of it and it will hurt, for a long time," Ashrak said pointing it at Jack and shot him instantly. Jack felt pain sear up his spine making his back arch and then it shot through his limbs making him crumple onto the floor then finally it made it way to his head blocking out his eyesight and his hearing with a high screeching sound. Jack's clone looked with shock at what was happening but he hid his emotions from the Ashrak. "Give it to me boy," the Ashrak said once more.

Clone Jack obediently held out the communicator and put it in the man's hands. The man walked away and Jack (clone) rushed to the man on the floor.

"Colonel, are you alright?" There was no answer, he touched the Colonel's arm and immediately the older man's arm shot up and held onto the clone's arm tightly. He couldn't see or hear, the world was shut out to him and the touch was comforting. "I'll take that as a 'kind of'," Jack (clone) said.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

There were coughs coming from behind her again.

"Cian stop coughing, they'll hear us,"

"I can't help it, it's really dusty,"

"I've got TB and you don't hear me coughing,"

Cian thought about that for a moment and decided that she was probably right he was over-reacting "Have you had your medication today?"

"Yes, now be quiet," Cian was always checking up on her, it was sweet most of the time butright now she found it annoying. Something made her move her head"I can hear Sam,"

She could hear Hammond's voice as well, she lay down in the vent and pressed her ear to the cold metal.

"Yes, they say they found Jamey in a storage room on this level but the other's we can't find and he won't tell us where unless they are (rustle of papers) 'in danger from being stabbed, shot at or blown up, otherwise Alex and Cian can look after themselves' were his exact words, sir," Sam said.

"We can't have children running around this facility, Major" Hammond's voice came "I'm holding you responsible for them. Do we know why they ran away?"

"Jamey says he think Alex was upset because she couldn't help save Jack, and Cian wanted to explore,I think Jameyjust went along to make sure they didn't get into any trouble,"

'We're getting Sam and Jamey in trouble,' Cian whispered

'Yeah come on, let's find a way to get into the office' she whispered back. They started crawling silently along the shaft until they reached the panel that looked out onto Hammond's office as she was about to hit the panel off so she could come out, she heard that word again. The word that started this bizarre day.

"…Ashrak are dangerous Major, we don't know what they could have got planned. We can't send a child out with you,"

"I think we owe her that much General, if we aren't going to tell her about the Stargate then we can at least let her be there when we get him home safely, she could stand far away from the fighting and say hi to him when we get him to a safe position," Sam said "She's a strong girl, she can take care of herself, sir,"

"This is still too dangerous, Major," No it's not she can handle it, she thought. She hit the panel with such force that she literally fell out into Hammond's office, quickly followed by Cian, who wasn't expecting the sudden movement; they ended up a pile on the floor. Hammond's face was priceless as they fell a metre and a half from the vent near the ceiling to the floor and got up smoothly and glared at the two adults.

"I'm going to help Sam or I'll tell everyone about Goalds, Ashes, Stargazes, clones and…and…"

"Thor," Cian added.

"Yeah him too,"

They both folded their arms over their chests and glared at the General and Carter once more.