In the bridge to the ship Odegra, Miktal surveyed his screens. A moment before he had registered two ships, and all seemed normal. The shift happened. Now he registered only one ship. It was possible that the command ship, the Jas'ril, had not jumped for some reason. He consulted his immediate inferior.
"What happened?" he asked.
"I do not know, my lord."
"Find out."
"Yes, my lord."
/
The team stopped a short way from the environmental control room.
"Teal'c," Jack said, "how long until we reach Earth?"
Teal'c looked at him and raised his eyebrow, as if to say that he had as much information on the subject as the commander. "I am not sure. Several hours at least."
"Alright. I don't want to raise suspicions too early. We will wait until we drop out of hyperspace, then take the ship."
"Sir," Young said, "maybe we shouldn't allow the other ship to render assistance." He looked nervously at O'Neill, who glared at him. "I just mean, sir, that maybe our friend failed. I see no reason to allow them to interfere. Sir."
"The ships cannot communicate until after they leave hyperspace. At most they can detect another ship traveling with them, but that is based on the mass, density, and shape of the other craft. No meaningful information can pass between them," Teal'c said.
Jack reluctantly accepted the advice. He had made his orders under that assumption that the other ship would not be a factor. He saw the wisdom in Young's words. "Alright. Let's try and find out how long this trip is gonna last." He looked to Teal'c.
"That will be difficult without exposing ourselves. Our best option is to make our way to the engine control room, and access one of the control panels."
"I take it that there are none of these panels somewhere outside of this control room?" Jack asked. He had not really expected an answer, and had merely asked out of frustration and exasperation, hoping that his tone conveyed the jocularity necessary to hide his feelings.
"Only on the bridge," Teal'c said.
"Right. Well, if it will be a few hours, I say we hide ourselves away, and strike shortly before we exit hyperspace."
They found another service passage, and hid themselves within it. The hours past slowly, and in silence. Every once in a while they would hear footsteps as jaffa moved through the corridor outside their hiding spot. The team would tense up, relaxing only several minutes after the footsteps faded into silence.
/
"My lord, we still have not detected the other ship,"
Miktal surveyed the jaffa addressing him.
"It is possible they were delayed in making the jump," the adjutant said.
"Very well," Miktal replied. "We will make contact with them when we arrive."
/
The waiting finally proved too much for Jack. "Alright, let's do this," he said, somewhat nervously.
They grouped together near an exit of the service passage. "Alright," O'Neill said, "According to Teal'c we should only be facing six technicians, but they will be armed. We also have to worry about the guards outside the room. That makes eight. Teal'c, I want you and Young in the front. Scott and I will take the rear. Carter, stay low. We need you to assist in debilitating the craft." The team gave their verbal assent.
Raising the helmets of their armor they exited the passage. They made their way to the environmental control room. Two guards stood watch outside the door. "We need to pass," Young said. He wanted his voice to sound strong, but the intensity of their plan made his voice falter. He only hoped that the helmet helped to obscure his trepidation.
The two guards glanced at one another. It was odd to have jaffa address them with their helmets on outside of battle. "On who's authority?" one asked.
Young hesitated. Teal'c sensed this, and replied, "The commander of this ship. Now step aside and let us enter." He spoke with authority.
"I'm sorry," the guard said, "but we cannot let you pass without seeing your face."
A moment of silence.
Jack looked at Scott. As one they raised their weapons. They fired. The guards died before they could react. Stepping over the bodies Teal'c activated the door controls. Inside they saw several people rising slowly from their seats. They had heard the gun shots, but were unsure how to react to the unfamiliar sounds they heard. Young and Teal'c, Jack and Scott, all began firing on them. Three went down quickly. The other three took cover and began returning fire. They were not warriors, however, and so were not well trained in combat. Less than a minute later all of them were dead.
Teal'c moved through the room, searching for the right console. He found it, and removed the dead jaffa slumped across the controls. The team lowered their helmets.
Looking pale but determined, Carter stepped forward. "Take that seat," Teal'c said, pointing to the console next to him. She sat.
"Let me lead. I will tell you what to do," Teal'c said to the others as they took up positions facing the door. "They will have raised the alarm. Take one of their weapons and shoot the door controls. That should prevent any reinforcements from easily entering the room." Scott shot the door controls.
Turning back to the console, Teal'c said, "We will have to initiate certain emergency protocols. I will need you to interrupt these commands before they finish. We will vent the atmosphere, convincing the computer that there is a poison in the air. The ship has supplies enough to replace the air several times. Failing that, we may be able to convince the computer that we have landed on a planet. There are procedures to vent and replace the atmosphere as a way to replenish the air supply. Are you ready?"
Carter nodded. The next several minutes were filled with technical dialogue, with Teal'c giving commands and asking for reports from Carter. Soon, activity could be heard outside of the door. Teal'c remained calm, working unfamiliar systems from a console he had never worked at before. Carter kept nervously glancing over her shoulder. The rest double checked their weapons and gear, hoping that their cover would be enough.
"You guys better get somewhere else," Jack said to the alien and the scientist.
"We must remain here." Though they were near the center of the room, and slightly obscured by machinery, they would both be exposed to fire as soon as the door was breached. Teal'c paused, and laid a hand on Carter's arm. He looked deep into her eyes. She felt a sense of utter calm. There was only one course of action now. They must complete their plan, or die, there were no other options. Taking a deep breath she turned back to her console.
Presently a gap opened up, the door had risen several inches. Jack tossed a grenade through the opening. The explosion left a ringing in their ears. A rushing, whistling sound filled the room. Carter and Teal'c had succeeded. The room was large, and the gap was small, but still they had precious few seconds to act. Samantha Carter leaned forward, grasping at the computer in front of her. She tried to calm her pounding heart as visions of her brother and her father swept through her mind, accompanied by faint images of her mother. A crushing pain in her chest, vision fading, darkly purple spots flashing. Gasping for breath she prepared to die.
As soon as he had finished his work, Teal'c lunged for the door. He pulled on it with all his strength. Scott and Young and O'Neill joined him. Desperation lent them strength, adrenaline pumped through their veins. A metallic groan, like the death of machinery, echoed faintly in the thinning air. The door shut. The soldiers lay on the floor, taking in thin lungfuls of air, body telling them it was not enough. Gradually the low hiss of the air vents became audible.
"What," Jack gasped, "the hell," he whispered, "Teal'c." He glared at the alien.
Teal'c raised himself to his feet. He extended his hand, helping the others rise. "Several rooms have redundant systems. Here, the bridge, weapons control, a few others." He shook his head, trying to push through the fog of oxygen deprivation. "We are safe here."
"Alright. We need a plan for our next move."
"We must ensure that the bridge cannot reacquire environmental controls. Dr. Carter?" Teal'c said.
Jack gave a nod to Sam. The next few minutes were spent opening panels and activating consoles. Teal'c and Sam had used a combination of emergency procedures and fooling the computer into enacting routine procedures to achieve their goal. This left several vulnerabilities to their plan, given that the bridge could potentially seize control of any system it saw fit. They went around disconnecting various computers and shoring up any digital programming gaps that they had left.
"Right, sir, we're reasonably secure here," she said to Jack.
"Reasonably?"
"Yes sir, best we're gonna get."
"Alright." He looked at her for slightly longer than she was comfortable with. "How are we gonna take control of this ship?"
"We can attach emergency air supplies to our suits. With them we can stage coordinated assaults on other protected areas of the ship," Teal'c said. "Many places have the same supplies, but since we evacuated the air without warning, there should not be that many enemy to contend with."
"Right. I'm assuming that these protected areas are ones vital to the operation of this warship, and so we have to take control of them to remove this ship as a threat?" Jack asked Teal'c. Teal'c nodded. "Right. So, priorities." He looked around at his team. They glanced among themselves. They all agreed, after their shared looks, that the bridge should be the prime target.
"Without the bridge, the weapons have no target," Teal'c said, summing up the instincts of the team.
"Right, we make for the bridge. Teal'c, where are these air supplies?"
"We must first ascertain where there may be enemies who survived," Teal'c said. Jack scowled, but mastered his anger. He had always prided himself on listening to, and accepting advice from, his subordinates, Hell, he had already done so with Young on this very mission. It was only when Teal'c offered alternatives and contradictory advice that he had an immediate negative reaction to that advice. In that moment he recognized this in himself, and vowed to overcome it. The greatest strength of the United States military was in the ability of commanders to listen to their subordinates, to realize that they were the eyes and ears, and most importantly, the minds capable of understanding what they saw and heard. Tamping down his irrational frustration he turned on Teal'c a look that he hoped conveyed the message, 'I am willing to listen to you as an equal.' Teal'c seemed to understand. "We can do that from here. The environmental controls are predicated on knowing where living people are located, so that informed decisions can be made. We can use the information provided by these systems to plan our assault," Teal'c said.
"Fine. Get on it." Within moments Teal'c and Carter had determined where there were still living jaffa. Jack called the team over to their monitors. They memorized their positions. A number of them were in the halls, and moving. They were the first targets of the team. Affixing their life support systems, which resembled small backpacks, and raising their helmets, they moved out. They had to open the door with brute force.
Clambering through the shallow opening they entered the hall. They stepped over the bodies of the fallen. Teal'c looked upon the face of each one. Moving with haste and caution they advanced. Soon they came upon a patrol. A brief firefight ensued. They were victorious, due mostly to surprise. They were one small team, while the jaffa were spread out, unorganized, and not expecting an enemy to be around any corner. This advantage would not last forever. They continued their advance.
For twenty minutes they moved, though it felt like hours and seconds at once. If they were asked to recall it they could probably describe each move, but in the moment each action seemed to take hours, and yet with all suddenness they were before a door, preparing to breach it.