709 Avenger 2.0
It was hard to recruit for the SGC when you couldn't tell people what they'd be doing. Recruiting from the military was a little easier - just tell them it would be exciting and challenging. They'd either run away or sign right up. For scientists - well it wasn't Jack's problem. Dealing with them was - Oy. It wasn't that he disliked scientists on general principles, although he said that often enough. There was one in particular he liked a lot. It was, when things got hairy, he needed precise answers not long drawn out lectures filled with conjecture and theories.
Felger and the crew he worked with were odd ducks. O'Neill understood why Carter preferred to work alone. Jack wondered how often Carter collaborated with Felger or did he drool from afar.
O'Neill did not see Felger as a problem, a bit of a nincompoop but not a problem. Sure, he drooled over Carter. Who didn't? And there certainly were sparks flying when they were in Felger's lab. But they caused Carter to grab O'Neill's arm and duck behind him as Felger's latest project, a plasma weapon, nearly exploded then fizzled out in a blaze of sparks. It wasn't Felger's drooling that Jack was worried about, it was his hair brained ideas and penchant for getting into trouble.
Although O'Neill didn't mind being Carter's shield, he was busy with other things. He and Teal'c and a troop of marines were trying to help resolve the animosities between assorted factions of the Rebel Jaffa. Of course all hell broke loose when they were attacked, each faction blaming the other. And the icing on the cake was, when they missed a check in, they couldn't dial out.
Daniel was helping relocate the population of a planet in severe distress. They too, without a working Stargate, were stranded in the midst of quakes and flooding.
The idea behind Felger's Avenger program was to target certain Stargates and disable them. This could put a crimp in these Goa'uld's battle plans. They would have to rely completely on ships as opposed to the immediacy of the Stargate for their internecine wars. The Goa'uld with the most ships would have the upper hand. And that was Ba'al.
The virus was sent to a world, rich in Naquadah, controlled by Ba'al. It worked. Unfortunately, like a virus it seemed to mutate and with the automatic correlative updates of the DHD, it spread to every world that had a DHD. Teams were stranded and soon the entire network was inoperable, except for Earth, who could only gate out.
O'Neill was furious when he found out that Ba'al had become involved in Felger's scheme, that nincompoop.
In order to correct the Avenger virus Sam and Felger needed to gate to P5S- 117, the planet originally infected, remove the control crystal, download the antivirus, reboot the system and Bob's your uncle. To add to the complication it seemed Ba'al reconfigured the virus and the fix was now extremely complicated. Then Ba'al's Jaffa arrived.
Sam held off the Jaffa while Felger worked on the program. When they were about to be overrun an Alkesh arrived overhead.
O'Neill managed to commandeer an Alkesh that was attacking the Rebel Jaffa, and flew it to P5S-117 to defend Sam. With the Stargate again functioning she and Felger gated back to the SGC. Jack took an alternate route.
Standing in her kitchen Sam said "Quite a save today."
"Why thank you ma'am." replied O'Neill.
"What did the general think of your gift?"
"He said my version of arriving on a white horse was a bit over the top. What did you tell him?"
Sam laughed. "I said you arrived in the nick of time. What did you do with it?"
"Want to take it out for a spin?"
"You know I do."
"Shoulda come with and left Felger there." Jack said. "It was too big to fit in my garage. So I had to hand it over to the geeks at area 51. They were thrilled."
"Want something to drink, coffee?"
"Nah, it's too late. I need some sleep."
"Tea? Cassie brought over some cookies." This got O'Neill's interest. "She was experimenting." Sam added.
"Should I be worried?" Jack stopped short with a cookie halfway to his mouth.
"No." she laughed. "She started out making chocolate chip cookies, then added walnuts and some oatmeaI. And to tell the truth, I don't know what else. "
"Sounds good to me." he said while popping an entire cookie into his mouth.
"Tea?" she asked again.
"Mmm" he murmured while nodding ascent.
When he finished chewing he said "Davis, Major Davis spoke to me today. He's more devious than I suspected. He found a spot out of sight of cameras and not a soul in the hallway. He said Kinsey has eyes on us, all of us. There are spies in the SGC. He's trying to discredit us."
Sam placed a mug on the counter top in front of him.
"I should go, I shouldn't even be here." O'Neill was concerned they were being watched even as they stood around the kitchen island.
Sam opened one of the drawers and lifted out what looked like an Asgard 'egg'. "We're shielded here. They can't hear what we say."
"Cool." O'Neill said. He finished another cookie, then leaned over and kissed her. "I should go home. They can still see my truck outside. They don't need any more ammunition. Kinsey wants me gone and the others won't let me retire. Seriously Sam, if they can't get to me they go after you."
"Before you go," Sam said as she handed him a dozen cookies she packed up for him. She leaned in and gave him a kiss, a long lingering kiss. "By the way, you're delicious."
"Not just the cookies?" He asked with a grin.
Sam grinned and shook her head as he made his way to her front door, cookies in hand.
On the way home O'Neill thought about the Asgard 'egg' Sam had. He had one too but was sure his wasn't a shield. It almost always made him feel better when he held it. Let him imagine a life more mundane and definitely more peaceful. He'd have to ask Sam about it. Maybe not, she'd want it to run some experiments on it. And on many days he needed it to get through the day.