"Sir, let me go first."
Jack nodded to the Marine that had spoken and moved aside. The man was one of the dog handlers, and jack was more than willing to allow them ahead of him on the stairs. It made O'Neill nervous to be enclosed like this. Not that he was claustrophobic, but the stairwells made ideal places for ambushes, and he hated being set up for an ambush. The fact that Jack had passed through only moments before with Teal'c and hadn't so much as growled made O'Neill a little more secure, but no less wary.
The German shepherd led the way up the stairs, pulling at his leash impatiently. The dogs were all excited and nervous – picking up the emotions of the people around them – and they were anxious to get on with whatever they were supposed to be doing.
"When we get through the door, we'll have to leave it open for Teal'c and his team to come back down," Jack said as he walked up the stairs. He made sure everyone could hear him before issuing his orders. "I want S-5 to stay at the door, and keep it secured so no one we don't know can come down from a higher level and backtrack on us. I'm sure you all heard Major Carter telling me over the radio that she thought there was at least one of them on this level, and we have no reason to believe that she's wrong, so keep an eye on the dogs."
There were nods all around. Jack knew he was repeating himself, but he couldn't express his concern enough. He wanted his people to come out of this alive. No one was expendable to him.
"S-3, you'll go towards the left corridor. S-4, you'll take the right. My team will be in the middle where we can back up either of you." Of course, his team was now consisting of him and only two Marines, but that was still three more weapons in the event of trouble.
More nods as the first dog reached the door to level 27.
"Everyone ready?" Jack asked, looking down at them. Their faces were tense, but their weapons were all held in hands that were steady and unwavering. They nodded, and Jack turned and looked at the dog handler and nodded, as well. "Open it up."
The door opened, and the German shepherd went out first, his nose up in the air, sniffing. His hackles started to rise, but he didn't snarl like the dogs tended to do when the assassins were close. Jack led the rest of the men and women out of the stairwell, and motioned S-5 to stay put, and gestured for the others to take their positions. The center corridor would eventually bring him and his team to the infirmary, and he'd decide then whether to clear everyone out or lock it down with the people still in it.
He silently pointed to the dogs; all of which had their hackles up, but were otherwise relatively calm, silently warning them that danger was probably close. The others all nodded as they went to their assigned spots, and taking a deep breath, Jack led his group down the corridor, ears listening for the killers his eyes wouldn't see until it was too late.
~*~
Five minutes after General Hammond left the Adams house, Dotty Adams appeared on the porch of the cabin she and her husband owned up on Bear Lake. Even in the dark, she could see the boat floating on the water where it was tied up at the small dock, and she knew it was late enough that both Shawn and James would be sound asleep. Her husband would ask her in the morning how she arrived that evening without a car and she'd tell him she'd had someone – perhaps Jack O'Neill – drive her up so she would be able to drive home with them instead of in her car. For the moment, though, the woman went for a walk.
She silently walked around the small building, her eyes not missing anything in the darkness, and her sharp ears catching every noise that was made in the vicinity. The woods were fairly quiet, as was normal up in the mountains where nocturnal animals were far outnumbered by the ones that roamed during the day, but she could hear the silent shushing of something walking in the distance.
She held still, her eyes turned towards the noise as it grew closer. Covered by the darkness of the building, and standing as still as the night, the assassin didn't see Dotty as he walked up. She saw him, though, even through his cloaking device. She waited, however, wanting to see how many of them there were before she made her move.
Another came behind the first, and then another, until there were five all told. Dotty stepped out of the shadows as the first came within the area she'd decided was as close as she'd allow them to get to the cabin.
She held up her hand, and uttered a word. A device attached to her palm glowed softly, and there was a low groan from the first Ashrak as he felt a sudden vibration in every cell in his body. Before he knew what had killed him, the vibrations became frequent and violent, and every soft tissue cell in his body exploded as the cellular walls burst from the vibrations, unable to contain their form. His skin held the mess internally, but the assassin crumbled to the ground, nothing more than a skin bag full of goo.
The other four stopped in their tracks at the sight of the woman – a human woman as near as they could tell – holding her hand at them as if she knew precisely where they were. They hadn't missed the downing of their companion, and all of them pointed their weapons at her. Dotty decided she only needed one alive, and she chose quickly. Without a word to any of them, she turned her other palm outwards towards the group, and as a shield formed around the one in the very back of the group, the other three exploded. Messily. Gore and pieces of what was only a moment ago three very capable assassins flew in every direction, spattering the ground around the woman and the shield protecting the fifth assassin, but not touching Dotty Adams.
"What are you?!" The Ashrak shrieked, terrified. He was still holding his weapon, but the hand that was holding it was attached to a brain that was frozen in shock at what he'd just witnessed. Not to mention something was holding him immobilized, so he couldn't have moved if he'd wanted to.
"A concerned mother," Dotty told him, answering in his own language, which also made his eyes widen in shock. "What is your objective?"
"I'm not telling yo-"He screamed as he felt a sharp pain lancing his upper thigh. He didn't know where the pain was coming from, but he knew WHO was causing it. She let him scream for a moment, and then eased the pain.
"What is your objective?"
"We're supposed to kill the boy! Or kill the man he's become! Either one! Both are here, in this time!"
"Who sent you?" Her voice was deadly calm, but her eyes were flashing anger.
The assassin didn't even think of telling her he wasn't going to say anything. He was ready to spill his guts, as long as she didn't do it for him.
"Tralan! The last of the System Lords! He's hired all of us! We're supposed to kill the one called Shawn Adams!"
"How did you get here? To this time?"
"We were waiting for them to open the Gate. We were going to come into the Tauri Gate room invisible, along with the SG-1 team, infiltrate the entire SGC and kill everyone – not just the target - but it didn't go right, and there was an explosion. There were many of us waiting at the Gate to go through when SG-1 did, but the explosion changed the Gate somehow and we were sent here with the target. All of us were knocked unconscious – one was killed, but when we came to, we found we were where we were supposed to be, just not in the right time. So we decided that some would go for the boy, and others would attack the man."
"How many of you are there?"
He hesitated, and felt the stabbing pain again. This time it was immediate, and it was in his groin. He would have fallen to the ground in a heap if she didn't have him in an invisible grip of some sort, keeping him on his feet.
"Twelve! There's twelve!"
"How many more up here?"
"None! I swear!"
"And at the SGC?"
"There were seven! One was dead at the Stargate, though."
Dotty couldn't do more to help the people at the SGC than she already had. She had to trust Jack O'Neill as she always had. He'd do whatever he needed to do to keep Shawn alive, and she knew it. She looked at the assassin in disgust, and killed him in the same manner as she'd killed the first one, by imploding his cellular walls. Then, with a sweeping motion of her left hand, she cleaned the mess that had been made. In a similar way that a zat makes things disappear if they're hit three times with the beam, Dotty Adams made all the goo and gore and dead bodies vanish.
Looking around once more, but fairly certain she could believe the word of the terrified assassin, she walked back to the porch and went inside the small cabin. She saw her husband sleeping on the sofa, and smiled tenderly. James was a good man, who had no idea what his wife was capable of – something she didn't intend to change. She went into Shawn's little room and found him sprawled on his bed, legs and arms everywhere, and his head buried under his pillow, even though the rest of him wasn't covered at all.
She pulled the blanket and sheet out from under him and gently covered him back up, then leaned over and raised the pillow just for a moment so she could kiss his soft cheek. He rolled over in his sleep – maybe in reaction to the touch, or maybe just to get more comfortable – and Dotty saw the gleam of metal from the dog tags her son wore almost constantly. A set of Jack's dog tags, she knew. She smiled softly, and tucked the blankets around their son, then left the room and went to join her husband.
Jack nodded to the Marine that had spoken and moved aside. The man was one of the dog handlers, and jack was more than willing to allow them ahead of him on the stairs. It made O'Neill nervous to be enclosed like this. Not that he was claustrophobic, but the stairwells made ideal places for ambushes, and he hated being set up for an ambush. The fact that Jack had passed through only moments before with Teal'c and hadn't so much as growled made O'Neill a little more secure, but no less wary.
The German shepherd led the way up the stairs, pulling at his leash impatiently. The dogs were all excited and nervous – picking up the emotions of the people around them – and they were anxious to get on with whatever they were supposed to be doing.
"When we get through the door, we'll have to leave it open for Teal'c and his team to come back down," Jack said as he walked up the stairs. He made sure everyone could hear him before issuing his orders. "I want S-5 to stay at the door, and keep it secured so no one we don't know can come down from a higher level and backtrack on us. I'm sure you all heard Major Carter telling me over the radio that she thought there was at least one of them on this level, and we have no reason to believe that she's wrong, so keep an eye on the dogs."
There were nods all around. Jack knew he was repeating himself, but he couldn't express his concern enough. He wanted his people to come out of this alive. No one was expendable to him.
"S-3, you'll go towards the left corridor. S-4, you'll take the right. My team will be in the middle where we can back up either of you." Of course, his team was now consisting of him and only two Marines, but that was still three more weapons in the event of trouble.
More nods as the first dog reached the door to level 27.
"Everyone ready?" Jack asked, looking down at them. Their faces were tense, but their weapons were all held in hands that were steady and unwavering. They nodded, and Jack turned and looked at the dog handler and nodded, as well. "Open it up."
The door opened, and the German shepherd went out first, his nose up in the air, sniffing. His hackles started to rise, but he didn't snarl like the dogs tended to do when the assassins were close. Jack led the rest of the men and women out of the stairwell, and motioned S-5 to stay put, and gestured for the others to take their positions. The center corridor would eventually bring him and his team to the infirmary, and he'd decide then whether to clear everyone out or lock it down with the people still in it.
He silently pointed to the dogs; all of which had their hackles up, but were otherwise relatively calm, silently warning them that danger was probably close. The others all nodded as they went to their assigned spots, and taking a deep breath, Jack led his group down the corridor, ears listening for the killers his eyes wouldn't see until it was too late.
~*~
Five minutes after General Hammond left the Adams house, Dotty Adams appeared on the porch of the cabin she and her husband owned up on Bear Lake. Even in the dark, she could see the boat floating on the water where it was tied up at the small dock, and she knew it was late enough that both Shawn and James would be sound asleep. Her husband would ask her in the morning how she arrived that evening without a car and she'd tell him she'd had someone – perhaps Jack O'Neill – drive her up so she would be able to drive home with them instead of in her car. For the moment, though, the woman went for a walk.
She silently walked around the small building, her eyes not missing anything in the darkness, and her sharp ears catching every noise that was made in the vicinity. The woods were fairly quiet, as was normal up in the mountains where nocturnal animals were far outnumbered by the ones that roamed during the day, but she could hear the silent shushing of something walking in the distance.
She held still, her eyes turned towards the noise as it grew closer. Covered by the darkness of the building, and standing as still as the night, the assassin didn't see Dotty as he walked up. She saw him, though, even through his cloaking device. She waited, however, wanting to see how many of them there were before she made her move.
Another came behind the first, and then another, until there were five all told. Dotty stepped out of the shadows as the first came within the area she'd decided was as close as she'd allow them to get to the cabin.
She held up her hand, and uttered a word. A device attached to her palm glowed softly, and there was a low groan from the first Ashrak as he felt a sudden vibration in every cell in his body. Before he knew what had killed him, the vibrations became frequent and violent, and every soft tissue cell in his body exploded as the cellular walls burst from the vibrations, unable to contain their form. His skin held the mess internally, but the assassin crumbled to the ground, nothing more than a skin bag full of goo.
The other four stopped in their tracks at the sight of the woman – a human woman as near as they could tell – holding her hand at them as if she knew precisely where they were. They hadn't missed the downing of their companion, and all of them pointed their weapons at her. Dotty decided she only needed one alive, and she chose quickly. Without a word to any of them, she turned her other palm outwards towards the group, and as a shield formed around the one in the very back of the group, the other three exploded. Messily. Gore and pieces of what was only a moment ago three very capable assassins flew in every direction, spattering the ground around the woman and the shield protecting the fifth assassin, but not touching Dotty Adams.
"What are you?!" The Ashrak shrieked, terrified. He was still holding his weapon, but the hand that was holding it was attached to a brain that was frozen in shock at what he'd just witnessed. Not to mention something was holding him immobilized, so he couldn't have moved if he'd wanted to.
"A concerned mother," Dotty told him, answering in his own language, which also made his eyes widen in shock. "What is your objective?"
"I'm not telling yo-"He screamed as he felt a sharp pain lancing his upper thigh. He didn't know where the pain was coming from, but he knew WHO was causing it. She let him scream for a moment, and then eased the pain.
"What is your objective?"
"We're supposed to kill the boy! Or kill the man he's become! Either one! Both are here, in this time!"
"Who sent you?" Her voice was deadly calm, but her eyes were flashing anger.
The assassin didn't even think of telling her he wasn't going to say anything. He was ready to spill his guts, as long as she didn't do it for him.
"Tralan! The last of the System Lords! He's hired all of us! We're supposed to kill the one called Shawn Adams!"
"How did you get here? To this time?"
"We were waiting for them to open the Gate. We were going to come into the Tauri Gate room invisible, along with the SG-1 team, infiltrate the entire SGC and kill everyone – not just the target - but it didn't go right, and there was an explosion. There were many of us waiting at the Gate to go through when SG-1 did, but the explosion changed the Gate somehow and we were sent here with the target. All of us were knocked unconscious – one was killed, but when we came to, we found we were where we were supposed to be, just not in the right time. So we decided that some would go for the boy, and others would attack the man."
"How many of you are there?"
He hesitated, and felt the stabbing pain again. This time it was immediate, and it was in his groin. He would have fallen to the ground in a heap if she didn't have him in an invisible grip of some sort, keeping him on his feet.
"Twelve! There's twelve!"
"How many more up here?"
"None! I swear!"
"And at the SGC?"
"There were seven! One was dead at the Stargate, though."
Dotty couldn't do more to help the people at the SGC than she already had. She had to trust Jack O'Neill as she always had. He'd do whatever he needed to do to keep Shawn alive, and she knew it. She looked at the assassin in disgust, and killed him in the same manner as she'd killed the first one, by imploding his cellular walls. Then, with a sweeping motion of her left hand, she cleaned the mess that had been made. In a similar way that a zat makes things disappear if they're hit three times with the beam, Dotty Adams made all the goo and gore and dead bodies vanish.
Looking around once more, but fairly certain she could believe the word of the terrified assassin, she walked back to the porch and went inside the small cabin. She saw her husband sleeping on the sofa, and smiled tenderly. James was a good man, who had no idea what his wife was capable of – something she didn't intend to change. She went into Shawn's little room and found him sprawled on his bed, legs and arms everywhere, and his head buried under his pillow, even though the rest of him wasn't covered at all.
She pulled the blanket and sheet out from under him and gently covered him back up, then leaned over and raised the pillow just for a moment so she could kiss his soft cheek. He rolled over in his sleep – maybe in reaction to the touch, or maybe just to get more comfortable – and Dotty saw the gleam of metal from the dog tags her son wore almost constantly. A set of Jack's dog tags, she knew. She smiled softly, and tucked the blankets around their son, then left the room and went to join her husband.