Coburn and Chavez came jogging into the chamber a moment later. "What the Hell was that?" Coburn asked as he gasped for breath.
"It appears that some of the Replicators survived the destruction of their ship," Thor said as is slender gray hands moved over the controls in front of him. "They have already begun to penetrate the outer hull."
"How many are there?" Jacob asked.
"Unknown, General Carter" Thor answered.
"Can you direct us to their location?" Teal'c asked. "We must destroy them if at all possible."
"Yes," Thor agreed.
"CommanderRabb stay here and direct us to the Replicators via the radio," Teal'c ordered as he nodded for the others to head out.
"But!" Rabb protested.
"Stay here!" Jacob ordered as he raced out of the room after Teal'c and the others.
A few seconds later Teal'c heard Rabb say over the radio, "Thor says at the next branch in the corridor turn left. They're about fifty meters down after that."
"Understood," Teal'c replied into the mic attacked to his vest before pointing Chavez to his side of the corridor and Jacob and Coburn to the other. The four men advanced cautiously down the corridor watching for signs of the Replicators. They didn't have to wait long. About twenty five meters down the corridor instead of the fifty Thor had said they first came across the Replicators and opened fire. The four men were able to advance no more than another ten meters towards the point where the Replicators had breached the inner hull to enter the ship. "Fall back!" Teal'c ordered upon seeing the Replicators dropping from a hole in the ceiling like rain falling from the sky. "We cannot hold them," he reported into the radio. "We are returning to your position."
"Understood, sir" they heard Rabb confirm through the radio. They fell back in relays closing off the sections of the ship as they went hoping to slow the Replicator's advance. Jacob and Teal'c left Coburn and Chavez to hold the corridor as they returned to the control room where Thor and Rabb were monitoring the progress of the Replicators. Harm turned as they entered the room. "Sir, we've got two more breaches aft of the rest of our team!" he immediately reported as he pointed to two positions on the ship display hovering in the air.
Teal'c keyed his radio. "DanielJackson, Replicators have penetrated the ship near your position," he told his teammate. "Close the emergency bulkheads."
"Right, Teal'c" they heard Jackson confirm through their radios.
"Thor, I don't want to be on here when the Replicators run out of inanimate things to eat," Jacob said. "How do we get off this ship?"
"All Asgard vessels have recently been equipped with a Stargate," Thor said as he manipulated the controls on the display to bring up a close up view of the area in question. "We are here. The chamber containing the Stargate is here," he explained indicating a chamber a few hundred yards from where they were at.
"Will not the power to the Stargate fail as the Replicators destroy the ship?" Teal'c questioned.
"No, Teal'c" Thor said. "We have learned from our last shared encounter with the Replicators. The Stargate on this ship is on an independent power supply."
"Don't suppose this ship has an auto-destruct?" Rabb asked facetiously.
"Of course, Commander," Thor told him.
"Great!" Rabb said. "So we get Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter out of the pods, set the auto-destruct, and 'Gate the Hell off this ship."
"Unfortunately, we cannot remove Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill from the pods yet," Thor informed them. "They are at a delicate stage in the healing. To remove them now would mean their deaths."
"Then we will simply take their pods with us as we did you," Teal'c announced.
"I had already disconnected my pod from the main system and put it in portable mode before entering it," Thor told him.
"And that's not the case here?" Jacob asked with a sigh though he was pretty sure he knew the answer already.
"No it is not," Thor said. "The healing will take another twenty minutes before they can be removed from the pods safely."
"So we hold the chambers where the pods and the Stargate are and the corridor in between," Jacob suggested.
"Indeed," Teal'c replied.
"Okay, Teal'c. I'll take the chamber with the pods" Jacob decided. "I'll keep Williams, Brooks, and Daniel with me and send the rest to you."
"I will guide Teal'c to the Stargate chamber then return to the medical chamber to monitor O'Neill and Major Carter," Thor agreed.
"Have AdmiralChegwidden take a team and hold the corridor," Teal'c ordered as Thor led Teal'c, Coburn, Rabb, and Chavez in the direction of the Stargate.
Jacob nodded as he headed in the direction opposite the others with his P90 firmly in his hands with the safety off. He was met by Chegwidden and three of the others just before he reached the medical chamber.
"We got about 500 meters that direction before running into the Replicators," Chegwidden informed him as he pointed back down the corridor. "We've secured all the bulkheads to that point. Now how the Hell do we get off this thing?" he asked as they rejoined Daniel and the others in the medical chamber.
Jacob noted that no one was playing cards now. Everyone but Williams who was busily worrying over his patients had their weapons out and were scanning the surrounding walls. Jacob motioned them all close and explained the situation.
"Twenty minutes? Oh man this is not good," Brooks said skillfully imitating one of his favorite movies. "This is not good."
"Ripley isn't here to save our asses," Chegwidden said surprising the others that he'd caught the joke. "We're going to have to do it ourselves."
"It'll take the Replicators several hours to eat enough of this ship for us to be in any danger. We just need to keep them away from the Stargate and this chamber," Daniel assured him.
"And hold the corridor between them," Jacob added. "Admiral Chegwidden, I'm going to keep Daniel, Williams, and Brooks with me. Take the rest and hold the corridor."
Chegwidden nodded then with a jerk of his head lead the rest of the soldiers into the corridor. "You, you, you, and you," he ordered pointing to each man in turn. "Spread out down the corridor at fifty foot intervals. Stay in visual contact with the person on either side of you. No heroic shit. Hailey stick close to me."
"Sir," she confirmed as she moved down the corridor the prescribed fifty feet staying within visual of the admiral and Corporal Granger.
Within minutes Thor joined the small group of nervous Tau'ri in the medical chamber. He wasted no time going to the pods in which O'Neill and Carter rested. Jacob was immediately at the small alien's side. "Thor, can you do anything to speed this up?" he asked gesturing towards the two occupied pods as the dull clicking of the Replicators moving around inside the bulkhead reverberated throughout the room.
"The stasis pods were not designed with human physiology in mind, General Carter," Thor answered. "However, I believe I can abort the last step in the healing process without causing harm to your daughter or O'Neill."
"Do it," Jacob ordered.
"They will be very weak," Thor warned. "As the last step in the healing process is the replenishment of the nutrients used earlier."
"Will they be conscious and able to walk?" Daniel asked.
"Yes, though they may require aide," Thor answered.
"Then do it," Daniel said.
Thor nodded and began moving the rock-like controls over the instrument panel on Carter's pod.