Chess and Checkers
Part 6 of The Asgard Sequence
Sequel to 'Jack the Ripper'
By Gumnut
Sep 2003
It was his reflexes that saved him.
Well, almost.
As he flung himself and Thor to the floor, the weapon discharge clipped him across his back. There was a sizzle, pop, and crack as his isolation field overloaded and burnt out. It wasn't designed to be shot at.
They should have thought about that when they put it on the perpetual target, he thought sarcastically as he hit the floor.
Immediately alarms started blaring and a force field snapped into place across the doorway, trapping their assailant inside with them.
Thor untangled himself from O'Neill and they quickly scuttled behind the bed for cover.
They could hear the young Asgard walking confidently around the room.
"You can not escape, O'Neill. I will have my vengeance."
Oh, please, he thought, think of something original, for god's sake.
He glanced at Thor. The small alien was flushing a faint shade of purple, he could almost see the steam coming out of the sides of his head. Thor was furious.
"You are a fool, youngling."
"Oh, the great Commander Thor speaks does he? What does he say about the results of his bringing this vermin to our home?"
"We have suffered, youngling, but O'Neill has suffered also. It was a crime against both our people."
"I don't see any humans writhing in pain. I see none dead in the streets." O'Neill could hear footsteps on the other side of the bed. "How can he know of our suffering?"
Thor moved to the edge of their cover, his body tensed for movement.
"You see little at all, youngling." Thor pounced. The weapon went flying, and before O'Neill could blink, Thor had the assailant immobilized, face down on the floor. He whispered in the young Asgard's ear. "You know even less."
"He should die." The captive almost wailed.
Thor was unsympathetic. "He will not if I can prevent it, but unfortunately, you will. All your own foolish fault." He indicated O'Neill. "You have exposed yourself to the disease by disabling O'Neill's isolation field. You will know our suffering first hand."
"No!" A frantic look at O'Neill, fear in his eyes. O'Neill looked away, but the Asgard's face seared itself into his memory.
It wasn't until O'Neill tried to stand up that he realised he was injured.
Owwww!
He reached around to touch his back. The hand came back smeared with green fluid. Well, that's a little unusual.
He sat back heavily, leaning his shoulder against the bed.
"Uh, Thor."
Thor glanced up at him. Jack held up his hand.
The prisoner gave a yelp as Thor's hold suddenly got tighter.
"Help is on the way, O'Neill."
He certainly hoped so. Damn it hurt.
There was a clattering of footsteps in the corridor and Janet, SG-1 and a group of Asgard security stood on the other side of the force field. The look on Janet's face was enough to bend metal.
Oh, man, he was so gonna get it.
**********
Sam Carter was exhausted.
She sat in the corner of the cabin they had been assigned aboard the 'O'Neill', nursing a cup of the coffee substitute she had been forced to concoct before the caffeine-free Daniel went into meltdown.
It didn't look like coffee, it didn't taste like coffee, but it had the correct caffeine levels to fuel her favourite archeologist.
Across the room Colonel O'Neill was wriggling in his seat, trying to get comfortable. He still looked drawn and tired. She knew that he was in some pain, but he refused to acknowledge any, except perhaps when he thought no-one was looking.
Her heart had skipped a beat when he had held up his green smeared hand on the other side of that force field. Once they had been able to isolate both the Colonel and his assailant, preventing contamination of the rest of the building, she had followed Janet into the room, hurrying over to her CO. He had been conscious and cursing in several different languages, none of which she had known he knew. A quick glance at Daniel had proved that whatever he was saying, it wasn't pretty.
Fortunately he was not hurt badly, but he did have a nasty burn across the left side of his back. Also, a small burn on his chest where the isolation field generator had been attached to his skin.
Unfortunately, in his current condition, the burns were not going to heal.
Several hours of microsurgery later, the Asgard specialists had patched him up somewhat. He was no longer bleeding and the wounds had been sealed, but it was still a worry for Janet. And despite the medication the Doctor had forced on the Colonel, he was still in some pain.
Her thought was illustrated before her eyes as the Colonel flinched in his seat.
While the Colonel had been quiet and compliant coming out of that room - which was a worry in itself - Thor on the other hand, had been like a tornado blowing through a farmhouse.
The Asgard had been livid.
She had seen a side of the normally polite and calm alien that had his fellow Asgard flinching in his mere presence. This was Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet. You did not want to mess with this guy.
Frantic investigation had proved that the assailant had worked alone. He had recently lost three members of his family group and it had been grief that drove him to do it. She understood fully, but had great trouble feeling sympathy as she watched her CO flinch yet again.
After everything he had been through, they could have lost him so easily.
They still might.
She stared down into her coffee-wannabe. She still couldn't face it. The thought of losing Jack O'Neill touched her on many levels. As her CO, as her friend, and...maybe more. It seemed hopeless. The Asgard had done all they could. The man was green, for god's sake. The only thin thread of hope was finding the persons responsible, praying they would be able to reverse it.
And if they couldn't, they were going to pay.
She had seen it in Teal'c's eyes. She had seen it in Janet's eyes. She had even seen it in Daniel's eyes. Too much had been done to this man. SG-1 was family, you mess with one, you mess with them all.
Thor had called a strategy meeting. Himself, Frere, three Asgard captains, Janet, and SG-1. The Colonel had just recently come out of surgery at that point, and Janet had him tied to some sort of hover chair.
The chain of complaints had been memorable until Daniel had threatened to push him off a balcony to see how high up the hover pads worked. Jack had shut up rather abruptly at that point.
She smiled to herself. The man was incorrigible. Several hours later, Daniel's favourite notebook had gone missing.
It had reappeared the following morning complete with stick figure aliens and odd looking UFOs scribbled over several pages. 'Beam me up, Danny!' was scrawled at the bottom of the masterpiece. Daniel had looked like he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Jack was no artist.
But Daniel had kept the pictures.
At the meeting they had gone over all the data that had been recovered by Frere in relation to both Thor's and O'Neill's original capture. Further information had been discovered by the medical staff. After it had been discovered that O'Neill was the source, the fact that Thor had not contracted the disease, yet had been exposed to O'Neill the longest, sparked their suspicions. Those suspicions were confirmed when a tiny, previously undetectable antibody was found in the Commander's blood. An artificial immunity to provide transport for O'Neill's time bomb to the Asgard world.
Unfortunately, the antibody was designed as a short term preventative. Slowly but surely Thor's immunity would wane. Fortunately, the Asgard had by this time a permanent vaccine under production. All the crew of the three ships assigned to this task were immunized.
It had been decided to send the small fleet of three ships back to the moon where the Colonel and Thor had been imprisoned in the hope of locating further information on their captors. Sam had offered her scientific expertise, thinking perhaps a different approach may shine some new light on the situation. She and Daniel had been swapping ideas ever since.
Daniel was uniquely qualified for this venture, a detective of the past, and had some perspectives and approaches that she had not considered. Teal'c had even thrown in some ideas. The Colonel had remained strangely quiet.
She glanced at him again. He had a piece of filmy printout and was folding it with some concentration. As she watched it became a paper plane. Not a simple child's paper plane, no, this was a plane of origamic proportions. The thing had tail planes, for goodness sake. Funny, she had never thought him to be one for origami.
Then he launched it.
It glided effortlessly up into the air, executed two perfect Immelmann rolls before returning precisely to his hand.
He caught her stare, and a devilish grin spread across his face.
On second thoughts, that is so Jack O'Neill. The thought of him in some flight school classroom with an armoury of notepaper. She quickly took a mouthful of coffee-wannabe to hide her smile.
A paper plane hit her squarely on the top of her head.
Her coffee-wannabe ended up on her shirt.
"Hey, Carter, whatcha doin'?"
She coughed, she spluttered, but one look at him, innocent look firmly in place, she couldn't even generate annoyance.
"Looking for a clean shirt, sir."
He grinned. "Oops, sorry."
"No, you're not."
"Yes, I am."
"Not."
"Am."
"Not."
"Am."
"Not."
"You're starting to sound like Daniel." He picked up another piece of paper. She must remember to ask Thor where to get some of that, so she could build her own origami air force. She might need it for defense.
"How are you feeling, Colonel?"
"Now you're sounding like Janet." He grumbled.
"You know me, sir, multitalented."
"Hmph."
"So..."
"So, what?"
"How are you feeling?"
"Argh. I've got a map of Colorado burnt into my back, how do you think I feel?"
"Sorry, sir."
"No, Carter, it's fine. I'm just bored. I hate having nothing to do." He was pouting.
"Thor said we would be there soon." They were jumping galaxies after all.
She suddenly had a picture in her mind of a young Jack O'Neill, in the back of his parent's car, whining 'Are we there yet?' all the way to some long distant destination. Bart Simpson, the original. She smirked.
"Something funny, Carter?" He had a new plane fully armed and ready. A cocked eyebrow indicating he was primed to launch.
"Uh, no, sir. Nice plane."
He looked at the piece of paperwork in his hand. "Haven't made one of these for years. Used to be great fun in flight school."
She knew it.
They were interrupted by Ropa's voice over the intercom. "Major Carter, Doctor Fraiser would like to see you in her laboratory."
She spoke to the ceiling. "Thanks, Ropa. Please tell her I will be there shortly." She looked back at the Colonel. "I have to go, will you be all right here by yourself?"
"Carter, I'm fine. I'm not going anywhere. Thor has so much security pinned on me, I doubt Anubis himself could get through." He rolled his eyes.
"Let's hope so, sir." Then as the door opened, she saw him eye the Asgard security forces outside the door and a crafty smile lit his face. He picked up another piece of paper.
Oh, dear.
As she left she shot him one more glance and said, "Behave yourself, sir."
He just grinned.
As she walked off she could not help laughing to herself. She almost felt sorry for the security team.
Halfway down the next corridor, she was shot from behind.
*********
Yep, Asgard security types were just like human security types. You could pinch them on the nose, stick flowers in their hair - or in the case of the Asgard, in their ears - and stamp on their toes, and they still would not react to your presence.
His entire air force bombing brigade lay at their feet and they had not even looked at him.
Distraction, he needed distraction.
He didn't have anything to do. Even if it was only a short trip between galaxies, he didn't want the time to think.
About things.
That and the continual ache that his body had become.
Paper planes...maybe he should graduate to frisbees.
He eyed the plastic crockery left over from lunch. Hmm.
Standing up carefully, he was making his way to the table when the ship suddenly lurched, the floor disappearing beneath his feet.
He stumbled.
And all the lights went out.
**********
FIN
Part 6 of The Asgard Sequence
Sequel to 'Jack the Ripper'
By Gumnut
Sep 2003
It was his reflexes that saved him.
Well, almost.
As he flung himself and Thor to the floor, the weapon discharge clipped him across his back. There was a sizzle, pop, and crack as his isolation field overloaded and burnt out. It wasn't designed to be shot at.
They should have thought about that when they put it on the perpetual target, he thought sarcastically as he hit the floor.
Immediately alarms started blaring and a force field snapped into place across the doorway, trapping their assailant inside with them.
Thor untangled himself from O'Neill and they quickly scuttled behind the bed for cover.
They could hear the young Asgard walking confidently around the room.
"You can not escape, O'Neill. I will have my vengeance."
Oh, please, he thought, think of something original, for god's sake.
He glanced at Thor. The small alien was flushing a faint shade of purple, he could almost see the steam coming out of the sides of his head. Thor was furious.
"You are a fool, youngling."
"Oh, the great Commander Thor speaks does he? What does he say about the results of his bringing this vermin to our home?"
"We have suffered, youngling, but O'Neill has suffered also. It was a crime against both our people."
"I don't see any humans writhing in pain. I see none dead in the streets." O'Neill could hear footsteps on the other side of the bed. "How can he know of our suffering?"
Thor moved to the edge of their cover, his body tensed for movement.
"You see little at all, youngling." Thor pounced. The weapon went flying, and before O'Neill could blink, Thor had the assailant immobilized, face down on the floor. He whispered in the young Asgard's ear. "You know even less."
"He should die." The captive almost wailed.
Thor was unsympathetic. "He will not if I can prevent it, but unfortunately, you will. All your own foolish fault." He indicated O'Neill. "You have exposed yourself to the disease by disabling O'Neill's isolation field. You will know our suffering first hand."
"No!" A frantic look at O'Neill, fear in his eyes. O'Neill looked away, but the Asgard's face seared itself into his memory.
It wasn't until O'Neill tried to stand up that he realised he was injured.
Owwww!
He reached around to touch his back. The hand came back smeared with green fluid. Well, that's a little unusual.
He sat back heavily, leaning his shoulder against the bed.
"Uh, Thor."
Thor glanced up at him. Jack held up his hand.
The prisoner gave a yelp as Thor's hold suddenly got tighter.
"Help is on the way, O'Neill."
He certainly hoped so. Damn it hurt.
There was a clattering of footsteps in the corridor and Janet, SG-1 and a group of Asgard security stood on the other side of the force field. The look on Janet's face was enough to bend metal.
Oh, man, he was so gonna get it.
**********
Sam Carter was exhausted.
She sat in the corner of the cabin they had been assigned aboard the 'O'Neill', nursing a cup of the coffee substitute she had been forced to concoct before the caffeine-free Daniel went into meltdown.
It didn't look like coffee, it didn't taste like coffee, but it had the correct caffeine levels to fuel her favourite archeologist.
Across the room Colonel O'Neill was wriggling in his seat, trying to get comfortable. He still looked drawn and tired. She knew that he was in some pain, but he refused to acknowledge any, except perhaps when he thought no-one was looking.
Her heart had skipped a beat when he had held up his green smeared hand on the other side of that force field. Once they had been able to isolate both the Colonel and his assailant, preventing contamination of the rest of the building, she had followed Janet into the room, hurrying over to her CO. He had been conscious and cursing in several different languages, none of which she had known he knew. A quick glance at Daniel had proved that whatever he was saying, it wasn't pretty.
Fortunately he was not hurt badly, but he did have a nasty burn across the left side of his back. Also, a small burn on his chest where the isolation field generator had been attached to his skin.
Unfortunately, in his current condition, the burns were not going to heal.
Several hours of microsurgery later, the Asgard specialists had patched him up somewhat. He was no longer bleeding and the wounds had been sealed, but it was still a worry for Janet. And despite the medication the Doctor had forced on the Colonel, he was still in some pain.
Her thought was illustrated before her eyes as the Colonel flinched in his seat.
While the Colonel had been quiet and compliant coming out of that room - which was a worry in itself - Thor on the other hand, had been like a tornado blowing through a farmhouse.
The Asgard had been livid.
She had seen a side of the normally polite and calm alien that had his fellow Asgard flinching in his mere presence. This was Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet. You did not want to mess with this guy.
Frantic investigation had proved that the assailant had worked alone. He had recently lost three members of his family group and it had been grief that drove him to do it. She understood fully, but had great trouble feeling sympathy as she watched her CO flinch yet again.
After everything he had been through, they could have lost him so easily.
They still might.
She stared down into her coffee-wannabe. She still couldn't face it. The thought of losing Jack O'Neill touched her on many levels. As her CO, as her friend, and...maybe more. It seemed hopeless. The Asgard had done all they could. The man was green, for god's sake. The only thin thread of hope was finding the persons responsible, praying they would be able to reverse it.
And if they couldn't, they were going to pay.
She had seen it in Teal'c's eyes. She had seen it in Janet's eyes. She had even seen it in Daniel's eyes. Too much had been done to this man. SG-1 was family, you mess with one, you mess with them all.
Thor had called a strategy meeting. Himself, Frere, three Asgard captains, Janet, and SG-1. The Colonel had just recently come out of surgery at that point, and Janet had him tied to some sort of hover chair.
The chain of complaints had been memorable until Daniel had threatened to push him off a balcony to see how high up the hover pads worked. Jack had shut up rather abruptly at that point.
She smiled to herself. The man was incorrigible. Several hours later, Daniel's favourite notebook had gone missing.
It had reappeared the following morning complete with stick figure aliens and odd looking UFOs scribbled over several pages. 'Beam me up, Danny!' was scrawled at the bottom of the masterpiece. Daniel had looked like he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Jack was no artist.
But Daniel had kept the pictures.
At the meeting they had gone over all the data that had been recovered by Frere in relation to both Thor's and O'Neill's original capture. Further information had been discovered by the medical staff. After it had been discovered that O'Neill was the source, the fact that Thor had not contracted the disease, yet had been exposed to O'Neill the longest, sparked their suspicions. Those suspicions were confirmed when a tiny, previously undetectable antibody was found in the Commander's blood. An artificial immunity to provide transport for O'Neill's time bomb to the Asgard world.
Unfortunately, the antibody was designed as a short term preventative. Slowly but surely Thor's immunity would wane. Fortunately, the Asgard had by this time a permanent vaccine under production. All the crew of the three ships assigned to this task were immunized.
It had been decided to send the small fleet of three ships back to the moon where the Colonel and Thor had been imprisoned in the hope of locating further information on their captors. Sam had offered her scientific expertise, thinking perhaps a different approach may shine some new light on the situation. She and Daniel had been swapping ideas ever since.
Daniel was uniquely qualified for this venture, a detective of the past, and had some perspectives and approaches that she had not considered. Teal'c had even thrown in some ideas. The Colonel had remained strangely quiet.
She glanced at him again. He had a piece of filmy printout and was folding it with some concentration. As she watched it became a paper plane. Not a simple child's paper plane, no, this was a plane of origamic proportions. The thing had tail planes, for goodness sake. Funny, she had never thought him to be one for origami.
Then he launched it.
It glided effortlessly up into the air, executed two perfect Immelmann rolls before returning precisely to his hand.
He caught her stare, and a devilish grin spread across his face.
On second thoughts, that is so Jack O'Neill. The thought of him in some flight school classroom with an armoury of notepaper. She quickly took a mouthful of coffee-wannabe to hide her smile.
A paper plane hit her squarely on the top of her head.
Her coffee-wannabe ended up on her shirt.
"Hey, Carter, whatcha doin'?"
She coughed, she spluttered, but one look at him, innocent look firmly in place, she couldn't even generate annoyance.
"Looking for a clean shirt, sir."
He grinned. "Oops, sorry."
"No, you're not."
"Yes, I am."
"Not."
"Am."
"Not."
"Am."
"Not."
"You're starting to sound like Daniel." He picked up another piece of paper. She must remember to ask Thor where to get some of that, so she could build her own origami air force. She might need it for defense.
"How are you feeling, Colonel?"
"Now you're sounding like Janet." He grumbled.
"You know me, sir, multitalented."
"Hmph."
"So..."
"So, what?"
"How are you feeling?"
"Argh. I've got a map of Colorado burnt into my back, how do you think I feel?"
"Sorry, sir."
"No, Carter, it's fine. I'm just bored. I hate having nothing to do." He was pouting.
"Thor said we would be there soon." They were jumping galaxies after all.
She suddenly had a picture in her mind of a young Jack O'Neill, in the back of his parent's car, whining 'Are we there yet?' all the way to some long distant destination. Bart Simpson, the original. She smirked.
"Something funny, Carter?" He had a new plane fully armed and ready. A cocked eyebrow indicating he was primed to launch.
"Uh, no, sir. Nice plane."
He looked at the piece of paperwork in his hand. "Haven't made one of these for years. Used to be great fun in flight school."
She knew it.
They were interrupted by Ropa's voice over the intercom. "Major Carter, Doctor Fraiser would like to see you in her laboratory."
She spoke to the ceiling. "Thanks, Ropa. Please tell her I will be there shortly." She looked back at the Colonel. "I have to go, will you be all right here by yourself?"
"Carter, I'm fine. I'm not going anywhere. Thor has so much security pinned on me, I doubt Anubis himself could get through." He rolled his eyes.
"Let's hope so, sir." Then as the door opened, she saw him eye the Asgard security forces outside the door and a crafty smile lit his face. He picked up another piece of paper.
Oh, dear.
As she left she shot him one more glance and said, "Behave yourself, sir."
He just grinned.
As she walked off she could not help laughing to herself. She almost felt sorry for the security team.
Halfway down the next corridor, she was shot from behind.
*********
Yep, Asgard security types were just like human security types. You could pinch them on the nose, stick flowers in their hair - or in the case of the Asgard, in their ears - and stamp on their toes, and they still would not react to your presence.
His entire air force bombing brigade lay at their feet and they had not even looked at him.
Distraction, he needed distraction.
He didn't have anything to do. Even if it was only a short trip between galaxies, he didn't want the time to think.
About things.
That and the continual ache that his body had become.
Paper planes...maybe he should graduate to frisbees.
He eyed the plastic crockery left over from lunch. Hmm.
Standing up carefully, he was making his way to the table when the ship suddenly lurched, the floor disappearing beneath his feet.
He stumbled.
And all the lights went out.
**********
FIN