Chapter 36
On the other side of the clearing, a woman quickly closed her laptop. Her work was done.
"Lioness to zookeeper, I'm ready for extraction."
"Lioness, go to rendezvous point and wait for us, we'll be there in ten minutes."
She turned one last time towards the clearing.
"You're lucky to have a friend like him, my Chloe. He's very unique!"
Pushing a button on a special device, she looked at the space ship explode into a million pieces then quickly left to go to the rendezvous point. She knew that her next assignment would be a little more difficult. Getting back Chloe's computer from no other place than the SGC…
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"Miss Lang, do you know how lucky you are to even be on that base? Only the best are chosen to work here. If you think you don't fit with the people you're asked to work with then let me call you an airplane and send you back to Smallville."
"That not what I want, I really want to work here. All I'm saying is that…"
"I've heard you, young girl, and I don't want to hear it anymore. You're not in high school here. Now, I have real business to attend to, so you're dismissed." General Hammond said with a quick look at the door.
"But…" Lana started
"Miss Lang what do you think would happen if I go downstairs and asked the nurse to give you something less 'dirty' to work in. Until now, you might have been treated like an unwanted recruit but things would be even worse."
"I didn't think about that."
"No, I didn't think you had. So please next time you come to see me, take time to think about what you're asking."
"Yes, sir. I'm sorry."
"Now, I have an important call to make…Close the door behind you."
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"Where is Daniel?" Jack shouted when the last of the debris fell on the ground
"I'm fine Jack, it didn't blow up until I got far enough from the ships; it's almost as if someone was waiting for the area to be clear..." Daniel said getting to his feet; his ears still ringing with the sound of the explosion.
Jack quickly looked around but saw no one. Clark came back outside of the little log cabin with Cassie and Chloe
"What happened?" He asked looking around
"The ship blew up." Jack said angrily
"Sir!" Carter said. "The man is dead!"
"For crying out loud, is there anything else that can go wrong?" He then looked and saw Cassie's face.
"Cassie," Jack said. He then turned around and looked at his team. "Carter, Teal'c, you take control here. Call for a cleaning team, maybe someone at area 51 will be able to figure out something with what is left of the ship. Daniel you're with me. Clark you stay with your friend; take her to a hospital."
"How do you propose I take her to the hospital?" Clark asked.
"Crap…" Jack mumbled "Take the second van but you better return it here." He added tossing a key to Clark.
Without a word, Daniel took Cassie's arm and he followed Jack into the woods.
"I'm almost glad that man is dead…" Carter said to Teal'c. "Don't know what the colonel would have done to him…"
"Indeed, O'Neill is very protective towards the young of your planet."
Carter smiled at Teal'c's implicit approval of Jack's behaviour. The Jaffa had come a long way.
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"Unscheduled off world activation," said a voice on the speaker.
"Close the Iris!" Hammond said when he arrived from his office.
"We're receiving an audio signal."
"Put it on the speaker."
After some static a deep voice resonated through the speakers. It was unquestionably Goa'uld.
"Tau'ri, this is Babi. Open your Iris. I need to speak with you. It is of the utmost importance."
"This is General Hammond. Please state the nature of your emergency."
The technician looked at the general with a strange look on his face.
"General, he's a Goa'uld!"
"I know. But it can also be a Tok'ra."
The speaker came back to life.
"I am your god Babi. I'm sure you remember me…"
The speaker didn't say another word for a few seconds as if waiting for an answer.
"No? That's odd. Don't worry I won't attack you. I'm asking for your help."
The general looked at the shimmering behind the iris. Where was the best team he had when things like this happened…Taking a deep breath, the general gave his order.
"Alert the guard; open the Iris." Then taking back the microphone he continued, "Babi, we will open the Iris, but if there is any sign of a threat I'll order my men to shoot."
"Understood, I'll be followed by my first prime and two personal guards."
In a slow swoosh, the Iris opened, letting pass a strange almost ape-like man.
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"Why are you still with them?" Chloe asked Clark, trying to make him say his secret.
"Well they needed my help and I've agreed. Besides I was visiting Lana on the base." Clark answered without even blinking.
"So you're back to Smallville for good!" Chloe said enthusiastically.
"Well, not exactly, you see, when we heard about Cassie's kidnapping we kind of left everything in stand by. So I have to return there…"
"Besides you will want to see your little Cassie…" Chloe said with a fake smile on her face.
"She's not mine." Clark protested. "Here we are," Clark said with relief when he saw the hospital.
A few hours later Clark and Chloe left the hospital, Chloe going home and Clark returning to see Major Carter and Teal'c.
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"Major Carter, this man has been-"
"I know, we must have hit him harder than we thought," Carter said.
"I don't think so, Major. There is a puncture wound on his neck and I've found this on the ground beside him."
Sam looked at the little dart Teal'c was manipulating.
"Poison!"
"Indeed."
"But we were alone around here!"
"The woods are thick; someone could have hidden within them." Teal'c said, looking around.
"But why kill him and blow up the ship?"
"Perhaps someone didn't want us to learn about this man and where he came from."
"Whoever it was might still be here." Carter said, looking around, but she didn't see anyone.
In three hours, the cleaning team had come and managed to make almost every trace of the ship disappear. Looking at them Carter saw Clark emerge from the woods.
"Clark, good! You're back. We'll be leaving soon." she said to him
Five hours after the explosion, they were all back in a plane.
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The first prime entered the throne room with a broad smile on his face.
"My lord, Babi's forces have surrendered to us."
"Bring him before me!"
"We haven't found him yet, my lord."
"Bring his first prime before me then."
"We haven't found him either, my lord."
Anhur's fist crushed one arm of his chair. His eyes started to glow.
"Bring them back to me; even if you have to destroy every city on every planet of his dominion, I want him to kneel before me. Now go and don't return until you find Babi or his first prime."
"Yes, my lord." The first prime of Anhur said, his smile gone from his face. Failure would mean death to him.
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They hadn't been back to the base for long when all of SG-1 were called into a briefing. Hammond told them what happened then let Daniel take control of the briefing.
"Babi was an Egyptian demonic god. Depicted as a baboon with an … you know" Daniel said blushing.
"No Daniel, I don't know…" Jack said to him
Daniel pushed a picture of the god to Jack.
"Ho! That…" Jack simply said, smiling and passing back the picture.
Carter looked at him wishing to see the picture as well.
"Later," Jack mouthed to her in silence when Daniel started to speak again
"Babi was a dangerous god, but was also associated with sexual prowess in the afterlife... As a demonic god he was said to live on human entrails."
"He wasn't too secretive about what he was," Jack said
"He probably had been spotted while transferring hosts; someone saw it happen and he took advantage of that," Carter added
"Anyway, he is mentioned in the Books of the Dead where he attends the ceremony of the Weighing of the Heart in the Hall of the Two Truths. He waits with Ammut to devour the souls of those found unworthy." Daniel finished.
"Can we trust him?" Hammond asked.
"No… he is a Goa'uld… sir. You know, little snake…" O'Neill answered sarcastically.
"Well, it's not that simple, Jack. He knew he wouldn't be welcome here but he tried it anyway…"
"Daniel, you've said it; he is a 'demonic' figure of the ancient Egypt-"
"I tend to agree with the Colonel on this one," Hammond said.
"Yes, but all I'm asking is an answer to who he was a demonic figure to…This Goa'uld hadn't hidden the way he lived to the Egyptians."
"You mean, he was like the Tok'ra?" Carter asked, confused.
"No, I'm just saying that maybe he deliberately showed people what he was. That maybe he is somewhere between the Tok'ra and the Goa'uld." Daniel answered.
TBC