"Hey, Janet! I brought some-" Daniel entered the infirmary without much thinking about his surroundings and found himself stopping mid-sentence, his eyes going wide at the Aschen standing around in the infirmary. "-Ooohhh umm, hey." He mumbled, seeing them there.
"Doctor Jackson, you just came back from an off-world mission, yes?" Mollem greeted him.
"Yes, that's right." Daniel said, keeping his hands in his pocket, concealing the vials he filled closely to him. "It was—umm very interesting." Daniel answered, pulling a smile which was obviously fake.
Daniel knew they were knee deep in negotiations with the Aschen. What was strange, in all of this, was when Sam begged him to neutrality, he'd started to see those little things, which Sam had pointed out. It seemed as though every world who had negotiated with the Aschen was set in the same structure in regard to farming, industrial, and technological. Each one perfectly the same in design, and now, the more he saw it in reality the more suspicious he had started to feel.
At first glance, the Aschen had told them a history similar to their own with regards to the Stargate, and assuming as they did at first that there were a limited number of combinations, because of lack of addresses known and interstellar shift. Yet, they had been to six different worlds in this alliance, yes all relatively close together and yes without interstellar shift, these planets would be within the group of planets reachable via Stargate, but all of them had this stodgy sameness to them. Three were farming planets, one industrial, and two technological. (This did not include Aschen Prime). It seemed to be the natives on these planets were now only serving their Aschen allies.
Yet, on each planet Daniel noticed the same things as Sam, the shrinking population, but there was never any sign the people were connecting the arrival of the Aschen with their shrinking populations. Until Janet had the physical evidence, there was no way SG-1 or anyone else could convince the powers to be that the alliance was a bad idea.
"You have something to share with Doctor Fraiser?" Mollem asked.
"No, nope." Daniel denied, shaking his head casually, "Just here to catch up."
Mollem gave a pointed look towards Daniel's pocket. "What are you hiding?" he asked suspiciously.
Thankful for the looseness of the pants, Daniel dropped the vials into his pockets and brought his hands out. "Nothing." He said much more confidently then he felt.
Mollem looked between the pair and left.
"I have more." Daniel said quietly, dropping the vials into Janet's palm.
"I'll get started on these right away." She said quietly with a nod towards the door. "He's been asking questions about how we run blood work."
Daniels' eyebrows shot up surprised. "Coincidence?" he asked her.
"I don't think so." she said quietly. "That's why I need to get these through as quickly as possible and we need to get this information back to Sam and Jack."
Daniel sighed deeply. "I can't believe how close to right they were about all this."
"I can't believe we didn't believe them, Sam could see the Colonel was right. How did we all fall victim to believing it?"
"It's the military, Sam has been trained to trust and follow orders from her CO who was Jack." Daniel noted. "Add to that their obvious feelings for each other. That gives them a -"
"Pretty strong bond." Nodding, Janet interrupted. "I'm going to get Abby to do your post mission check. So, I can get on with our work."
A couple of hours later, Janet heard whispers in the corridor, words close to "Frasier, Hammond, Aschen... now."
Janet went to her desk and pulled out the USB and put it into the port. It was time to transfer everything onto the memory stick. If she was going to be next on the Aschen list of people to eliminate from the SGC, she was going to make damn sure Sam got all the evidence she needed. She watched as it downloaded, ignoring the men entering the infirmary.
25%. They spotted her-
51%. They started moving towards her.
"Come on!" Janet willed it in a whisper, putting her hand close to the port so she could remove it discreetly.
"Doctor Fraiser, can you come with us?"
84% "What is this about?" She asked them.
99%.
"You need to come with us." The other airman said. "General Hammond wants to see you."
100%. She eyed Teal'c standing by the door where he bowed his head slightly. Janet settled her expression into her game face while she pulled the USB into her palm. She started to walk towards the exit where Teal'c blocked their way.
"Is there a problem, Doctor Fraiser?" Teal'c asked her, eyeing the soldiers behind her.
"Everything is fine, Teal'c." she said, reaching out both her hands, palm down into his open palm. "Make sure SG-1 holds it together." She tells him, to which he nods, feeling the object being dropped into his palm; he curls it up moments before she walks past. The gesture appeared on camera as though she'd simply taken his hands on support.
"What was that about?" The second airman asked him. Teal'c looked silently at the airman who apparently got unnerved and walked away.
Daniel had already been in the briefing room when they walked past with Janet, Teal'c sat beside him, and showed Daniel his open palm under the table away from the camera, where Daniel nodded his head once.
They got to hear Janet's indigent shouting at accusations he knew to be true. Yes, she was running bloodwork on alien samples. Yes, she was sharing top secret information with former colleagues, and yes, she did think there was credit behind their 'cockamamie' claims about the Aschen. Would that little fiery "Napoleonic power monger" (as Jack had often called her) admit to any of this? Daniel admitted he admired her spunk and wondered if it had something to do with their career choices. Both Sam and Janet were strong, fiery, independent women after all.
The meeting had him on edge. It wasn't just General Hammond in there anymore, another General had been called in to oversee the small details of the agreement, worse still had had a small unit of his own, none of which were under any obligation to report to General Hammond or follow his commands. Had it only been General Hammond he was sure Hammond would smooth the whole thing over, dismiss Janet telling her he'd come and see her in an hour, giving her the chance to remove any evidence. This other General, General Burke, was almost threatening court martial for Janet, before Hammond pointed out she was a member of this base and therefore still under his command, the quip from General Burke being "for the time being" perked Daniel's suspicions.
General Burke continued his smear campaign against Jack and Sam. It was when he heard Burke say "We're going to have to find Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter and arrest them" that Daniel reacted. Daniel jumped up from his seat and leaving the room, he walked in a fast march towards his lab making it look as casual as possible. Standing in the blind spot in his office from the cameras, he quickly brought his phone out and called Jack's number.
"Jack?" Daniel said into his phone, with an affirmation it was Jack he said. "Ya, is Sam with you?" he asked. He paused "Good, you both need to leave town now- don't take your cells, don't make yourself traceable, get a burner phone and use Thera and Jonah when contacting me. They suspect Janet and are coming for you." he paused "Yah, Janet is fine, she has information which she passed to Teal'c we have it, I'm putting it in my locked top drawer, now we just need to wipe the SCG computers-" Daniel paused. "I know Sam's program would work, I know! But you can't come here. Just go. I'll figure something out and slow them down, I don't know how much time you have. I can cover it!"
"Ya?" Jack answered his phone. "Yah, Danny?" he asked, he looked up with a concerned look on his face as Sam looked at her husband with a wondering look. "Of course, she is." He paused, listening "What!?" Jack asked. "Is Janet okay?" Jack listened again. "Well Sam's virus would fix that." Jack listened again "Alright." He said before he hung up. "Leave your phone, take the sim card, and bring all our research and some clothes. We need to leave. We'll go to the cabin. Cash only, oh and the computer virus you wrote."
Sam nodded without a word and started collecting what she needed, without a second thought as to why she snapped into 'military mode'. It must have been something in his voice or posture which changed into 'the Colonel', she had to follow, and she did it, without question.
He grabbed a roll of money he kept at his bedside and his personal sidearm before they exited quickly and got to the truck, throwing their bags in the back, and jumped into the seats, he backed out the drive. They were on the road part way through the Springs before he asked. "Aren't you going to ask?"
"You gave me an order, sir. I obeyed." she said with a smile to him.
He grinned stupidly at the sound of 'sir' leaving her lips. He realised as the words left her mouth they were true and she snapped to it, he felt proud of how much trust his wife had in him, had he done this to Sara there would have been testy questions left right and centre, she certainly wouldn't have followed orders. "Takes me back," he said with the same grin on his face "you, calling me sir." he said.
She giggled. "I didn't even notice."
"You stopped altogether after the first mission you had through the gate without me." he said, his hand going over to her thigh as he held it gently. He noticed the concerned look on her face "Sam?"
"I think we have a tail, sir." she told him.
"Damn, they were fast." he muttered. "I'll try and lose 'em." Jack said. "Hold tight baby girl." He said holding Sam's neat little bump before he saw Sam brace herself. Three blocks down and they were still being followed by some people they could see were in uniform. Jack was starting to worry. He was not going to lose his wife to a federal prison now.
Daniel rolled his eyes "I don't know what you're talking about, Generals, honestly I stepped out for the book I came back with, see, it has in the exact translations for-"
"You called Jack's phone Doctor Jackson." General Burke said, "You were on the phone for two minutes forty."
Daniel's lips formed an 'o' then a confused look before he said "Oh, my butt phone call?" Daniel laughed. "No, you see it keeps ringing Jack when it's in my pocket." He chuckled again "Ask Jack, you'll see, he'll tell you his current nickname is 'buttface' for me."
"That's just the problem, Doctor Jackson, my men are currently following them in Jack's truck, they're evading arrest."
"Really?" Daniel responded in a mock surprise which Hammond could read but Burke could not. "That's um, a shame-and illegal, of course."
General Hammond looked at Daniel and wondered exactly the old SG-1 was up to.
George sighed and looked at Teal'c. "I don't suppose you have anything to add, Teal'c?" George asked him. Teal'c looked directly at him and only raised an eyebrow. George sighed deeply. "I need to trust you two aren't compromised!" he asked again.
"General, you know we don't share the same convictions as Sam and Jack. We never would have got this far in negotiations if we did." Daniel observed.
Hammond rolled his eyes. He had no idea if they were giving him anything. This was typical Jack. He was rubbing off on them.
"I don't believe Doctor Jackson or Teal'c have been compromised, General Hammond, they have been nothing but co-operative." Mollem acknowledged, "Maybe what I saw in the infirmary was in fact a coincidence."
"And we have enjoyed going off world with you, Mollem." Daniel almost choked on his own words.
"I have read their reports, General Burke, and they've been a far cry from those of Colonel O'Neill's and even Major Carter's last report." Mollem explained
Hammond sighed heavily. If they were mixed up on Jack's nutty ideas, he hoped they all knew what they were getting themselves into.