Ousters
The Tokra'h ship sliced soundlessly through clouds of age-old gases and star dust.
"I have never seen anything like this before," Medran whispered in an awed voice.
Jack jostled around the Escuvaran for a better view. "Well, if you could peel yourself off the window we might be able to search for that nebula Daniel saw..."
Carter didn't look up from the display in front of Jacob in the pilot seat.
"Actually, Sir, our instruments are going to detect any nebula long before we will be able to see it."
"I knew that." Jack pulled a face, but the Escuvaran had barely listened to the exchange. His eyes never left the glittering stars scattered across the darkness, an expression of childlike delight on his usually inanimate features.
"There are those among us who believe that it was wrong to allow your kind to meet with us. That we should stayed amongst ourselves. You are not like us... ...but they were wrong." He touched his fingers to the screen separating them from the vacuum outside. "I must return to Escuvar and bring back these memories. My people must learn what marvels the world is capable of. We will never be alone again on Escuvar."
"Sam, I think I've got something here."
A quick look over Jacob's shoulder confirmed it. "This is the type of radiation we were scanning for. With a bit of luck our nebula should be straight ahead."
The ship turned and Medran drew a sharp breath, stepping back from the window. The nebula rose before them, a swirling mass off dusts and gases, mingled with the debris of stars and planets. Daniel looked briefly over other the man's shoulder.
"Told you it was pink," he murmured.
Jacob hit a button and released the ship's controls. "We are cloaked and holding our position."
Sam was still focussed on the sensors. "What is that?"
"What is what?" O'Neill asked.
She pointed to a cluster of dark specs on her scanner, barely visible to the naked eye as blurred black shapes in the outer rim of the nebula.
"I don't think that's part of the gas formations."
On the display, the objects seemed to ripple out and then contract again, as if drawn in by an invisible force at the centre of the formation.
O'Neill frowned at the screen. "Ousters?"
"I don't know, Sir."
Jacob took the ship closer, and the team watched in silence as the shapes grew bigger and bigger and finally loomed before them as a giant spider's web of dozens of interconnected ships, each linked to a central hub by a thick umbilical cord and floating gently in the gaseous movements of the nebula like leaves on a pond.
O'Neill cleared his throat. "That's a lot of ships."
Jacob checked the ship's cloak. They could not afford to be discovered while they played sitting duck to an armada of hostile vessels.
"What is your plan?", the Gou'ald asked sharply.
The silence seemed to echo around the ship.
Jack shook his head. "We can't take on a whole fleet of ships. We don't even know if the girls are here. Do we?"
Medran had been looking out at the mass of alien ships, his eyes alight in fierce concentration. "It is too far. I cannot be certain. Can you take us closer?"
They crept up on the flotilla, all quiet as if the enemy might be able to hear them through the thick hull of the Tokra'h cruiser. Some of the ships had formed small conglomerations away from the hub, all interlinked by their own umbilicals and usually only connected with the large central ship through a single bridging vessel. After a moment's consideration, Medran pointed to a cluster of five ships bobbing on the outskirts of the main formation.
"Yeroon is there. I cannot be certain about Lestarta or Ellen," he said in a carefully neutral voice.
"Which ship exactly?" Jack asked, but Medran shook his head.
"I would have to be closer."
Jacob carefully navigated the ship towards a vacant umbilical floating at the edge of the ship formation. The connector seemed to sense their presence, it hesitated and then sucked onto the air lock of the Tokra'h ship with a faint clink.
Jacob released his controls, relieved. "That was easy."
The team geared up in space suits and assembled by the air lock. Medran shifted uncomfortably in the stiff suit. The lock cycled and he put on his helmet. His long fingers found the communications panel on the left sleeve, moving swiftly across the controls, shutting off the channels to all but Daniel.
"I can find Yeroon and Lestarta, but I cannot find Ellen. You can."
There was no plea in his voice, but his eyes burnt bright cobalt behind his visor. Daniel gave a single nod, and Medran ducked through the lock behind Teal'c.
He looked back, baring his teeth in the mirthless grin. "I trust you with my life, Daniel Jackson. Keep it well."
Before the archaeologist could answer, the Escuvaran had stepped into the Ouster ship's umbilical. They slithered and slipped down the alien cord, often losing their footing in the fluid movements of the umbilical, but its residual gravity ensured that the winding turns never dislodged them completely. They arrived at the Ouster airlock, panting slightly from the exertion. Jack motioned for them to stand back and took point with Teal'c. His voice came hollow over the comm channel.
"Okay, folks. We don't know what we're going to find in there. Teal'c, Sam, you go after the girls. Medran, you're with them. Stay close, no hero tactics. Daniel, you're with me."
He touched a gloved hand to a single glowing control at the side of the air lock. They tumbled into the increased gravity of the alien ship and landed on the scaly floor in an undignified heap.
O'Neill muttered a curse and pulled himself up quickly, pointing his zat in all directions. The corridor was empty and seemed to run parallel to the ship's hull. Medran led Teal'c and Sam to the right. Daniel gestured towards to the other direction, and they scurried along the narrow passage.
At each smaller corridor leading towards the centre of the ship, Jack checked for the ship's occupants, and their progress was painfully slow to Daniel. At one junction, O'Neill pulled him back forcibly. He couldn't hear the other man's disgusted hiss, but the expression behind his visor was clear enough. The two men hunkered at the wall of the walkway while two alien voices hovered precariously near. Their language seemed similar to the native tongue of Escuvar, but too different for Daniel to form an instant understanding. He popped his head around the corner for a closer look.
O'Neill jerked him back to safety and remained a firm grip on his shoulder until the alien voices had disappeared. Daniel waited, staring at the wall opposite. It was made of the same greyish, strangely organic looking material he had seen in Ellen's cell. The ship seemed to have full gravity, and the figures had not been wearing space suits. He pressed a button and pushed up his visor. The air tasted stale and strangely spicey, but as far as he could tell it wasn't toxic or otherwise harmful. O'Neill stared at him, his eyes bulging.
"Are you insane?" he rasped over the comm.
"I don't think so, Jack."
O'Neill's mouth worked, but in the end he merely undid his own visor. "Have you finished experimenting now?" he asked acidly.
They continued down the corridor and along a crossway, gently easing themselves into the bowels of the ship.
"How much further?" Jack whispered.
Daniel paused with his back pressed against the wall. He could feel Ellen, almost taste her presence in his mind. She was in her cell, the same one as before. She was alone. He could feel the cold of the floor beneath her legs, her seasick sense of desolation... He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut, ignoring the sullen ache throbbing behind his forehead .His mind swam from the onslaught of two separate realities. He exhaled, slowly and deliberately, and the two versions of his universe slowly merged into one like two sectors of an overlapping map. Daniel opened his eyes and motioned for Jack to follow.
They came to a halt in front of an unguarded grey door. Daniel prodded at the symbols on the touch pad and it slipped open soundlessly.
"I don't like this. Too easy."
But then Jack stepped into the cell, his zat sweeping the room before he nodded at its occupant.
Ellen's eyes widened in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"That is such a good question." Jack barked into his radio for Carter to report. He was answered by static crackle.
"It won't work here. Radiation," Daniel pointed at the nebula outside. Ellen rubbed her wrists, sore from where the restraints had bitten into her skin.
"Are you good to go?" Jack asked.
Her answer was drowned by a loud swishing sound. It started from the corridor behind them, followed by a green energy bolt erupting from the gangway. It slammed into the floor, inches from O'Neill's left foot. Daniel slapped the door pad and it closed reluctantly, shuddering under the barrage of energy bolts. O'Neill swore heartily.
"I knew this was too easy. Did you see how many?" he asked the archaeologist.
"Six. Maybe more."
O'Neill grabbed his radio. "Carter, we could use a little help here." Static hissed over the ether. "Oh for crying out loud! What sort of goddamn planet is this?"
"Technically, it's a nebula. It's just a diffuse mass of interstellar dust and gases..."
"Will you shut up?" He turned from the younger man to Ellen. "Any bright ideas?"
She gave him a fierce grin despite her split lip. "I thought you were supposed to be the rescue mission?"
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