"That room is tighter than my grandma at Christmas." Ray said under his breath to Seleen, eyeing the four guards outside the Communications room. "I mean, four? Don't you think that's a little excessive? What is this, Fort Knox?"
"Reii-An?" Seleen inquired.
Ray shook his head. "S'not important. Vosk said he was going to hold them here, so we gotta figure a way to divert them"
"Shoot them?" Seleen asked, fingering her zat.
"...without them holing up and sealing our guys in there with 'em." he finished.
Seleen gave a little shrug.
Ray backed up a little and looked around. Something...there had to be...something... some way to get into that room.
Subterfuge. Shir piped up suddenly and Ray cocked his head as they went back and forth with ideas. One thing he loved about his Lady; she was one sneaky bitch.
"Yeah." he chewed over the new plan. "That could work."
He looked at Seleen and grinned. "Shir'll call 'em out. You distract 'em"
"Shoot them?" Seleen asked again.
"...sure, you could do that, Miss One Track Mind. And when enough of them are down, I'm betting that there Colonel type guy and his big Jaffa friend will take over." his feral smile flashed out at her. "From what I hear, they kinda got a rep for that sort of thing."
Seleen nodded. "That sounds like a workable plan, Reii-An."
Ray's com clicked. "What, Frase?" he heard the edge of irritation in his voice, but couldn't help it. The Lar'raan Reii were built for invisible strikes at Goa'uld mother ships, not for prolonged and multi-person hostage situations. This mission had dragged on for far too long already and Fraser probably wanted to save some Jaffa while they were here.
"I have a problem, Ray."
Ray's heart stopped.
"What, what, you shot? What's going on?"
"No, Ray, no." Fraser hastily reassured him, "It's not me. Dr. Jackson has a severe concussion and is lapsing in and out of consciousness. I'm taking him back to the Stargate."
"Don't sweat it, Frase." Ray relaxed. Even half a ship apart, the old duet, the Fraser 'n Ray one-two punch was in effect. "I'm at the Comm room. You get the Doctor to the Gate and we'll get the others. Dion's there with Major Carter and the kid. Don't...don't wait for me, Frase." Ray added, realizing that this could be a very good plan, given half a chance.
"Don't be silly, Ray."
"No, freak, I mean at the Gate. I mean...drop the doctor off and you and Dion get back to the ship. Seleen will bring these guys to the Gate - " he caught Seleen's eye "- and I'm going to cause a ruckus and distract any and all Jaffa I can. I think it'd be a very good idea to get the engines running. Y'know, just in case we got Jaffa on our tails right until we ring out."
"What are you planning, Ray?" Fraser sounded suspicious.
"Not now, Fraser." Ray cut him off. "We gotta go before everyone gets back to work. Get the doc to the gate, pronto and wait for me in the car."
"Ship, Ray."
"Yeah. I knew that."
--------------------------
Jack was going to kill something very, very soon. He was worried about Carter and her leg. Staging a jailbreak on a bum leg was murder. He was also worried about Daniel, but that way led to madness and bad decisions, so he tried not to think about it more than he had to. Unfortunately, thanks to the images Creepy Guy had put into his head, he kept feeling like he had to.
It was becoming a trifle disconcerting.
The worst thing of all, though, the absolute suckiest part of the whole thing?
Jack was deeply bored.
Carter had managed to create a diversion and not one of these pissant Jaffa was following the plan. If even one or two of them would have the decency, the fucking balls to at least try to look for Carter, he and Teal'c could take the rest. But there were still six Jaffa in the room and who knew how many standing just outside the door.
He was good and Teal'c was good, but neither of them was that good.
"Jaffa." A gravelly snake-touched voice sounded in the hall.
"Now what?" Jack bitched at the nearest Jaffa, the little whiny one. He was looking even more scared than he had before. All the guards were.
"The God is here?" one said, visibly quaking in his little metal Jaffa boots.
They heard tramping leading away from the door. Jack and Teal'c exchanged looks.
The door guards are leaving, O'Neill
Yeah, I heard. We still got six here, though. Wait for it, big guy.
There was a moment of silence. None of the Jaffa looked like they had exhaled anytime recently. They were actually all looking a little bit purple now.
"Jaffa!" the imperious voice rang out again. It sounded like a female Goa'uld. "Attend the God, Jaffa! Kree!"
"Yeah, yeah. 'Kree.' We've heard that before." Jack looked disgusted. "Do you people even have any other words?"
"That is not our God." One of the Jaffa was listening hard, a puzzled look on his face.
"Well, speaking from my experience, " Jack said blandly, "They're pretty much interchangeable."
"Jaffa!" The Goa'uld spoke a third time and there was much shifting and muttering among the Jaffa guards. "Attend the Goddess Idun. We are displeased with your laziness and sloth. Is this how you honor your God and his much beloved guest?"
Jack started to get that feeling. That "something is fishy here" feeling.
This time, however, he liked it.
"I need...warriors to replace the door guards. I have taken those to be my hands while I am on board."
All of the Jaffa were quaking now. Jack could see their dilemma; piss off the God or piss off the Great White. He could see how that's be a tough call.
Still, you had to love the odds if he could get only two Jaffa against him and Teal'c.
"Attend Idun, Jaffa! Now!"
Four Jaffa started for the door. They'd just cleared the doorway when the distinctive sound of zat fire started. The remaining two Jaffa whirled around, but Jack hit the whiny one and Teal'c hit the aggressive one and then Jack took out the one guy that tried to get back into the room for good measure. He headed out the door, Teal'c right behind him.
Standing over a veritable pile of twitching Jaffa was stocky platinum blond with a zat in each hand. They stared at her.
"Nice shootin', Tex." Jack muttered. The blonde smiled even as she started down the hallway.
"Come. We have no time. The Reii-An is distracting the other Jaffa, drawing them away from us, but they will not be fooled for long. Come now."
They fell into step with her, hauling ass down the bronze metal corridor.
"Does the Tok'Ra have a ship?" Jack panted. "Where'd he...she...it come from?"
The blond woman didn't answer. Behind them they could hear zat fire.
"Daniel." Jack said just as Teal'c said, "Rya'c." Both men stopped short.
"We gotta find 'em." Jack ordered. Their unknown ally turned, but kept running in the same direction. She ran backwards several steps, hissing at them.
"They are at the Stargate. We are the last. Hurry." they started after her again. She threw herself into the lift, motioning impatiently for them to hurry. "The Reii-An is putting himself in danger for our sakes. We must not lose time."
"Who is this Ray Ann guy - chick - whatever?" Jack asked. That name was beginning to get on his nerves.
There was no answer as the lift stopped and the woman hurtled out and headed for the Gate room.
Teal'c leaned forward. "I do not believe we are getting the entire tale, O'Neill."
"The whole story." Jack said in a low voice. "Yeah. I'm getting that feeling as well."
They sped after her, peering around as soon as they entered the room. There was no one there. The woman was uncovering a largish stack of boxes in the corner.
"Where's the rest of my team?"
The woman pulled away the boxes to reveal a very groggy Daniel, and an unconscious Carter.
"Father!" "Rya'c!" Rya'c stepped forward, looking strangely adult. He and his father clasped hands and then broke into a short but fierce hug.
Jack went over to his people, checking them out. A bolt of fear went through him at the sight of Daniel's disorientation. He squatted down next to Daniel, hesitated for a moment, and then started rubbing his shoulder.
"Hey, Danny." he said lightly. "What did you do to yourself this time?"
Daniel squinted up at him. His look was unfocused, but not traumatized or broken. Jack's stomach began to unclench and something spiky and dirty loosed itself from his lungs. He raised his voice. "Dial us home, Teal'c. We need to get these two to Janet as soon as possible."
Daniel winced at the volume. "I just hit my head, Jack. I'll be fine."
"Hey, don't look at me. You're the one that keeps getting the crap kicked out of you."
Daniel looked around, unsteady. Jack helped him to his feet, where he peered at them as if he thought he would see something different if he just kept looking. He was looking around the Gate room like there was something essential missing.
The blond woman was at the door, checking for enemies. "The Reii-An fixed the woman's leg. She will sleep for a while, then she will wake."
"Who or what is this Ray Ann?" Jack asked. He tried to keep the anger in check, but it had been a really long and monumentally crappy day and there was no way he was going to keep his cool if she said the name Ray Ann one freaking more time. "If she's fighting the Goa'uld, we would like to talk to her, maybe we could become allies."
"I must go. They are waiting." she started through the door.
"Wait." Jack could hear the Stargate engaging, and Teal'c was no doubt triggering his GDO. The big Jaffa began moving over to pick up Carter. They had no time left. "We're allies with the Tok'Ra. They can come through to our base. We don't leave people behind."
He flicked a glance at Teal'c, who was staring at the woman Ñ no, Jack realized, turning back around. He was staring at the door. The woman had taken off.
Whatever. Both time and the wormhole were a'wastin' and they were still on a Goa'uld mother ship headed up by a mutant Jaffa psycho. Time to get the kids home.
"Teal'c, take Carter. I'll help Daniel. C'mon, Rya'c, let's go."
Rya'c plunged through the Gate with one last look back at his father. Jack got Daniel's arm over his shoulders and began to drag him toward the Gate. Daniel still had that look, that I've-lost-something look, but he was putting his feet down and moving.
Teal'c was still immobilized, staring at the door, Carter small and pale in his arms.
"The Lar'raan Reii are a myth." he said softly.
"Teal'c!" Jack yelled. "Get over here!" No response. "Teal'c!"
Teal'c raised an eyebrow, clearly perturbed, but started moving towards the wormhole.
"Yeah, I'm lost, too." Jack told him, projecting as much urgency as he could. "But we've got to get Carter and Daniel back. They need a doctor. We'll unravel this whole thing out back at the SGC."
Teal'c gave a short nod and swept through the Gate, taking the Major with him.
Daniel was mumbling something about...Adonis?
What the fuck?
Jack ignored him and pushed through the Gate.
Time to go home.