Watching Harm and the Jaffa at work, Mac became more and more impressed at
what the people at the SGC did on a day-to-day basis. She had a rudimentary
understanding of both physics and archaeology, but the way in which SGC
work combined the two must make life hell for the archaeologists, linguists
and physicists. The archaeologists had to be careful in case they
encountered incredibly dangerous technology. The linguists had to deal with
both linguistic shift on an awesome scale and scientific and technical
vocabulary not likely to be found in the works of ancient scribes. The
physicists had to work with technology that not only was obscure in use and
origin, but had instruction manuals and displays in dead languages far
different to the ancient classical languages that turned up in the stems of
Earth's technological terminology.
It was also disconcerting to see Harm so at home with this alien technology. While the systems of F-14s had always been somewhat alien to her, they had at least been familiarly alien. The technology, while confusing, was without doubt human in origin. What Harm was dealing with at the moment was technology developed by a mixture of the Ancients, the Goa'uld and any other race the Goa'uld had managed to steal things from. Mac was unsure whether to be glad that the Apollo experience had had a few fringe benefits, or extremely worried at how fully Apollo's knowledge seemed to have integrated itself with Harm's psyche.
When Mac had been in the room for fifty-seven minutes and twenty-six seconds, Harm looked up from the console where he was seated and grinned at her. She walked over to him, curious as to the cause of the grin.
"Harm? What's going on?"
"I think I've found a way to impress you." He was like a small boy about to show off his new toy to the little girl next door.
"I think we're past the point where you need to impress me, Harm."
His eyes twinkled. "Humour me. I'm a guy. I need to impress my girl. And as my flying makes you sick, I was thinking I could make do with a big explosion."
"An explosion's supposed to impress me?" Mac was grinning too by now, Harm's enthusiasm being somewhat infectious. Those Jaffa near enough to overhear the conversation, which was most of them, were caught somewhere between bemusement and laughter.
"Hey, you're a Marine. You could pretend it's a really big airstrike."
"Harm, the last airstrike both of us were involved in, we were kinda on the receiving end."
"Not if you count Paraguay as an airstrike. You gotta admit that explosion gave you a rush."
"At the time I was more concerned with the fact that we were about to crash."
"That wasn't a crash. It was an emergency landing."
"Harm, the plane had been hit by a stinger."
"Yeah. While you were at the stick I might add. You can't blame that one on me."
"Sure I can. But I'll be nice and let you off. So how are you going to arrange this impressive explosion of yours?"
"We've calculated exactly what place in the facility to place a bomb to set off the most effective chain reaction, allowing for the removal of as much refined naquadah as we can fit into our cargo vessel. The Jaffa are going to take a little and use it to get established on a new homeworld somewhere, the rest is ours as long as we use it to bring down the Goa'uld and don't mindlessly slaughter Jaffa without giving them the chance to go free. And as a thank-you for setting these guys free. Never knew swearing in Latin could have such useful results."
"In that case I might let you teach our kids to do it."
Harm's grin grew even wider at that, a strange look in his eyes. "I'll hold you to that, Marine."
It took several hours to get the Jaffa evacuated to their ships, especially as many of them were in far-lying corners of the base, and others were needed to put together the bomb and position it for maximum effect. However, when those hours had passed, everything was as ready as it could be.
Aiax felt the destruction of the base to be his responsibility, and refused to leave with the other Jaffa, who set off in convoy for a set of pre- arranged co-ordinates, leaving only a Jaffa, three humans and a Guardian remaining, Harm Sr and Mac preparing the cargo ship for departure and securing the naquadah aboard in the way Harm had showed them, and the other three in the refining plant where the bomb was to be set off. Harm and Aiax were still busy working out the precise timing to set the bomb's explosion to, to enable them to make their escape without there being any chance of Pan dropping in and working out what was going on.
As it turned out, Pan dropping in was not a problem.
Anubis dropping in, on the other hand, was.
It was also disconcerting to see Harm so at home with this alien technology. While the systems of F-14s had always been somewhat alien to her, they had at least been familiarly alien. The technology, while confusing, was without doubt human in origin. What Harm was dealing with at the moment was technology developed by a mixture of the Ancients, the Goa'uld and any other race the Goa'uld had managed to steal things from. Mac was unsure whether to be glad that the Apollo experience had had a few fringe benefits, or extremely worried at how fully Apollo's knowledge seemed to have integrated itself with Harm's psyche.
When Mac had been in the room for fifty-seven minutes and twenty-six seconds, Harm looked up from the console where he was seated and grinned at her. She walked over to him, curious as to the cause of the grin.
"Harm? What's going on?"
"I think I've found a way to impress you." He was like a small boy about to show off his new toy to the little girl next door.
"I think we're past the point where you need to impress me, Harm."
His eyes twinkled. "Humour me. I'm a guy. I need to impress my girl. And as my flying makes you sick, I was thinking I could make do with a big explosion."
"An explosion's supposed to impress me?" Mac was grinning too by now, Harm's enthusiasm being somewhat infectious. Those Jaffa near enough to overhear the conversation, which was most of them, were caught somewhere between bemusement and laughter.
"Hey, you're a Marine. You could pretend it's a really big airstrike."
"Harm, the last airstrike both of us were involved in, we were kinda on the receiving end."
"Not if you count Paraguay as an airstrike. You gotta admit that explosion gave you a rush."
"At the time I was more concerned with the fact that we were about to crash."
"That wasn't a crash. It was an emergency landing."
"Harm, the plane had been hit by a stinger."
"Yeah. While you were at the stick I might add. You can't blame that one on me."
"Sure I can. But I'll be nice and let you off. So how are you going to arrange this impressive explosion of yours?"
"We've calculated exactly what place in the facility to place a bomb to set off the most effective chain reaction, allowing for the removal of as much refined naquadah as we can fit into our cargo vessel. The Jaffa are going to take a little and use it to get established on a new homeworld somewhere, the rest is ours as long as we use it to bring down the Goa'uld and don't mindlessly slaughter Jaffa without giving them the chance to go free. And as a thank-you for setting these guys free. Never knew swearing in Latin could have such useful results."
"In that case I might let you teach our kids to do it."
Harm's grin grew even wider at that, a strange look in his eyes. "I'll hold you to that, Marine."
It took several hours to get the Jaffa evacuated to their ships, especially as many of them were in far-lying corners of the base, and others were needed to put together the bomb and position it for maximum effect. However, when those hours had passed, everything was as ready as it could be.
Aiax felt the destruction of the base to be his responsibility, and refused to leave with the other Jaffa, who set off in convoy for a set of pre- arranged co-ordinates, leaving only a Jaffa, three humans and a Guardian remaining, Harm Sr and Mac preparing the cargo ship for departure and securing the naquadah aboard in the way Harm had showed them, and the other three in the refining plant where the bomb was to be set off. Harm and Aiax were still busy working out the precise timing to set the bomb's explosion to, to enable them to make their escape without there being any chance of Pan dropping in and working out what was going on.
As it turned out, Pan dropping in was not a problem.
Anubis dropping in, on the other hand, was.