CHAPTER THREE: It Doesn't Even Matter

Daniel looked up as he heard a sound at the door to his office. Sam was standing there, looking worried.

"How was Washington?" he asked.

"Not so great," Sam sighed. "How's it coming along here? You got any ideas yet?"

Daniel shook his head. "We haven't come up with much. The Tok'ra are doing what they can, Jacob's coming with a few people within the next half hour."

Sam sighed and wandered into the room, staring at the Egyptian artefacts Daniel had sitting on one of his shelves.

"You contacted Jonas? He tends to come up with some different ideas," Sam asked.

"Yeah, he's around somewhere, came about ten minutes ago…when did you two get back?"

"About ten minutes ago," Sam muttered. "I'm gonna go to the commissary, get some food, then get down to work. Wanna join me?"

"No I think I'll stay here, I still got this thing to translate," Daniel said.

"What is it?" Sam asked.

Daniel shrugged and picked up the tablet. "Something SG-4 brought back with them – the people who gave them the warning gave them this thing and told them the Tok'ra that informed them gave them this before he died."

Sam raised her eyebrows. "You got any idea what it says?"

"Well it looks familiar…but I can't tell…"

"Ancient?" Sam asked.

"No…something else…actually…" Daniel put the tablet back down on the table and search under his desk for something else. "Aha!" he said, picking up a group of photos.

He searched through them till he found what he was looking for. He held the photo up and showed it to Sam. She looked at it blankly.

"It looks familiar…but I can't place it…" she said.

"It's one of the four languages we found when we rescued Ernest," Daniel said. "But I don't know which species it belongs to."

"Well it's not the Ancients," Sam tried to help. "And it's not the Asguard…that leaves the Furlings and the Nox."

"We could ask the Nox…but for some strange reason I don't think we'd get a straight answer," Daniel said. "Don't worry I'll figure it out."

"Lunch?" Sam suggested.

"You're not seriously hungry are you?" Daniel asked.

"No…but Janet keeps telling me I need something to keep me awake," Sam said.

"I guess I could do with a coffee," Daniel said. "OK, I'll meet you there in a minute."

Sam nodded and headed towards the commissary,

~*~*~*~*~

Jacob Carter watched as Anubis took his seat in the giant chair, his cloak spreading out as he did so.

"How much longer?" Anubis demanded.

"A day and a half your highness," the Jaffa said, not daring to look at his master's face.

"Make it go faster," Anubis stated.

"This is as fast as it can go," the Jaffa said.

"Why can't this ship go any faster?" Anubis asked.

"Because it is impossible," the Jaffa said.

"Telnak! You tell me lies Jaffa…make this ship go faster or you will never again see the light of day," Anubis growled, leaning forward in his ship.

"It is impossible, master," the Jaffa said.

"Well make it unimpossible," Anubis said, starting to sound impatient.

"I can not," the Jaffa said.

Anubis lifted his hand and with a swift movement of his hand the Jaffa's neck was cracked, without ever having made contact with Anubis himself. The Jaffa fell to the ground with a big thump and everyone in the room froze in their position.

"Make this ship go faster or you will all be dead before we reach Earth," Anubis said.

Jacob knew that this threat wasn't true, he couldn't kill everyone or he'd have less people left to attack Earth when they got there. Jacob could only hope that the SGC would find some way to prevent the attack from occurring.

~*~*~*~*~

"O'Neill."

Jack stopped in the hallway and turned around. "Hey Teal'c…watcha doing?"

"I am attempting to locate MajorCarter," Teal'c said.

"Ah…so we're both trying to do the same thing," Jack said.

"For what reason?" Teal'c asked.

"Felger says he's got some idea he wants to sha…" Jack stopped mid-sentence and gawked at the person who had just appeared in the hallway behind Teal'c. "No…no…and no…"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow and looked behind him, in time to see the smiling face waving to them

"Hey Teal'c, hey Colonel!" McKay grinned.

"How can you smile at a time like this?" Jack asked.

McKay lost the grin. "Where's Major Carter?"

"Wouldn't you like to know…" Jack mumbled.

UNAUTHORISED OFFWORLD ACTIVATION

"What now?" Jack groaned, heading off towards the gate room, followed by Teal'c and a very confused looking McKay.

They entered the control room to find Sam and Daniel already standing there, Daniel was holding a coffee and Sam was leaning over reading stuff off one of the screens.

"It's the Tok'ra sir," she announced.

"Open the iris," Hammond ordered.

The iris opened and through it stepped a familiar looking figure.

"Oh for crying out loud," Jack said, moving away from the window slightly. "This is not what I need at the moment."

Clad in a tightly fitted black outfit that revealed her figure quite clearly stood Anise or Freya, whichever one had control.

"No…no…did someone organise for everyone I hate to arrive on base in the same five minutes?" Jack said out loud, then looked at McKay who was glaring at him. "Whoops…did I just say that out loud?"

Sam smiled slightly as Hammond lead the way down to the Gate room to great Anise. Jack wandered along at the back of the line mumbling. Anise met Hammond near the doorway.

"I have bad news…Anubis has sped up his fleet – they'll be here within 24 hours," she said, then she turned to Sam.

"Your father is our spy among them."

Sam stiffened. Why hadn't anyone told them this earlier?

Jack glared at Anise who comfortably smiled back at him.

"O'Neill, it is nice to see you again," said Freya this time.

Jack made an indistinguishable noise and forced a smile.

~*~*~*~*~

"Save me," Jack said, sitting down on the stool and picking up an object.

Sam looked up from her work in shock. She'd been half asleep and daydreaming, not really paying any attention to the world around her.

"I'm trying to, sir," she replied.

"Not from Anubis, from Anise!" he said. "She's stalking me again."

Sam smiled slightly. "McKay just disappeared for a talk with Felger, left me alone for a few minutes so I can actually think."

"Oh…I'll leave then," Jack said.

"No its OK, sir, it's nice to have a break from science talk," Sam said.

"I never though I'd hear you say that," Jack said.

They sat in silence for a short time, Jack fiddling with the object he'd pick up from Sam's desk and Sam staring at him smiling softly.

"I'm gonna miss this," she said.

"Miss what?" Jack asked.

"This…" she said. "Even if we manage to save Earth from Anubis…it'll never be the same…"

"Yeah…" he replied. "I better let you keep working."

"Thanks, sir," she said.

"Welcome as always," Jack said, standing up. "Have fun, I'm gonna go bug Daniel see what he's come up with."

Sam nodded and returned to her work. This was gonna be harder than she thought.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Felger looked up as McKay entered the room. "Why are you here?"

"Major Carter sent me," McKay replied.

"How come you get to work with Major Carter and I don't?" Felger asked.

"Because I'm smarter than you…now give me what you've come up with," McKay said.

"No, it's my work," Felger replied.

"Major Carter wants to see it," McKay said.

"Then she can come get it herself," Felger shouted back.

McKay continued staring at Felger who finally gave in. He turned around and grabbed his folder off his desk.

"Here…happy?" Felger asked.

"Very," McKay replied, opening the folder, ripping out all the pages and then tearing them in half.

"What do you think you're doing?" Felger asked. "That's all my work!"

"Exactly," McKay said, his eyes glowing.

"No…" Felger said, backing away slowly.

He slammed into the bench behind him.

"You're a Goa'uld," Felger said.

"How clever of you to figure that out Felger," McKay said.

"But no…Major Carter and Teal'c would have sensed it," Felger said.

"Not if I don't have Naquadah in my blood…you don't think all the Goa'uld from that batch of clones was kept in the town do you? Oh you did! How naïve of you…" McKay reached forward and grabbed Felger's neck, lifting him up off the ground slightly.

Felger could only make a gurgling sound.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: I know I know took forever!! I'm in the middle of exams at the moment!! But I felt guilty I hadn't posted anything. So here you go! Oh and the cloned Goa'uld are from the s6 episode Nightwalkers in case you'd forgotten lol.

PLEASE REVIEW J!