Author's Note: Getting there, thanks for being patient! I know waiting every other day is rough, don't know what I was thinking to take on two stories simultaneously! Sache8, this chapter should answer your question, you are thinking ahead LOL! I was working on this problem last night but I only write in the mornings.

Chapter Nine

Plans
"Jack!"

"What?" Jack replied back, not moving or opening his eyes.

Daniel leaned toward Jack's bed, propped on his elbow, "You asleep?"

"No Daniel, I'm talking to you, how could I possibly be asleep?"

Daniel paused, "Right. Sorry. How long do you think we've been here?"

"Been where?"

"Here...the planet."

Jack rolled over slightly, enough to look at Daniel, "I don't know...why?"

"Time is running out. I don't know about you, but I'm not feeling so hot."

Oh. That was Daniel's point. Jack couldn't help but admit he wasn't feeling so good either, and if he was even more brutally honest, he wasn't sure they'd be getting out of this one. He didn't say that out loud but judging from the expression Daniel was sporting, he didn't need to.

"Don't give up Daniel." He said instead.

Daniel rolled onto his back, "You too."

"Colonel, Daniel, how do you feel?" Fraiser had slipped into the darkened side-room where they were lying.

"Like a package of raw meat left out of the refrigerator too long." Jack said.

Daniel grimaced, "That's descriptive."

"She asked."

Fraiser smiled, "So I did." She moved in with her stethoscope, checked the IV site, and did a quick appraisal of first Jack then Daniel.

"Doc?"

Fraiser turned to him, after finishing with Daniel, "Yes?"

"How's Carter holding up?"

"Better than you two. She thinks the naquadah in her blood is slowing the rate of decay in her cellular tissue..."

"What?"

Janet sighed, "It's going slower in her. She's also had the vitamin cocktail on regular intervals...frequently."

"That's good...right?" Daniel asked.

Janet nodded, "Actually, all of us are doing better, you missed almost two treatments. It makes a big difference."

"Can't you just double the dose?"

"No Daniel, it doesn't work that way. Overdosing on vitamins doesn't improve their effectiveness, and the level of damage in both your systems has risen to the level where the vitamin cocktail can help, but it can't 'catch up'."

"Damn." Jack wished he were Dorothy and could click his heels three times, and wake up in the infirmary.

"Doesn't work that way Colonel." Janet said.

"Did I say that out loud?"

"Yes Jack." Daniel was grinning from his bed.

"Damn."

"Colonel, if you are feeling up for it, some people want to speak with you." Janet asked, studying him carefully, looking for any signs that he wasn't.

Jack knew whom she was talking about. He and Daniel had picked a bad time to go toes up. He hoped Carter had been doing that brainstorming thing, because if she hadn't, they were in big trouble. "Send them in."

Janet nodded, and waved out the door, then headed for a chair. Jack raised an eyebrow at the watchdog behavior. Janet didn't say anything but returned his look.

Carter, Teal'c and Boch filed in, quietly, the way people always enter sickrooms. With that air of worry and tension, and knowing that you don't want to see your friends sick but not wanting to leave them alone either.

"We're not dead yet." Jack said.

Sam paled, "Colonel?"

"I know what you are thinking Carter so cut the act. Daniel and I are still alive, and as long as we are breathing, we've got a chance at making it out of here."

"Yes Sir."

"I assume you've got an idea?"

Sam smiled, a fleeting mixture of hope and sadness, "Yes Sir. Boch was able to answer a lot of our questions. We think we can destroy Nertti's technology and shift the city back into phase with the Stargate, which will allow us to gate home."

Jack was silent for a beat, "Wow...all that all ready. You outdo yourself Carter."

Sam grinned, "Yes Sir."

Daniel watched the interplay between his two friends, bemused, and saw Teal'c smile softly, the tiniest of quirks giving him away.

"Do tell." Jack said.

Carter found a chair, and got comfortable, keeping the flashlight on by her side, but the lens pointed downwards to minimize the glare in the room. "Boch explained what has been happening on the planet."

Jack looked to where Boch was leaning against a wall, one leg crossed over the other, arms folded against his chest. He grinned and nodded, "Seems Nertti is pretty desperate to get an edge on the other System Lords. She started experimenting with an off-shoot of her invisibility technology, this phase thing, because it allows her to not just cloak large objects, like Mother ship's and planets, but it's also virtually undetectable unless the individual knows to look for the specific energy signature."

Jack was staring at Boch in surprise, "Wow."

Teal'c had raised an eyebrow, and tilted his head towards Jack, "Indeed, Aris Boch is quite fluent in Goa'uld technology O'Neill."

"How did you get involved in this? Last time we met, you were a bounty hunter, not a Goa'uld techno geek." Jack was curious but he was also concerned, worried that Aris had sold them out to Nertti for help with his world's addiction to the blue liquid.

"It's not what you are thinking Colonel O'Neill. Nertti approached me with a job, bringing in you four; like I said, you all have high prices on your heads, she wanted to up the price. You four for a cure."

Daniel's eyes widened, "That's a pretty big pay-off."

Boch nodded, "Yes Doctor Jackson, it is, if she could be trusted. Of all the System Lord's, Nertti is most known for not following through. I didn't think she'd do anything in return except eliminate me."

"So why are you here? Why the elaborate set up with the U'Tak'ans?" Jack asked, "By the way, where are the U'Tak'ans?"

"Hiding Colonel. I brokered a side-deal with Nertti for them."

"Son-of-a-bitch, I knew they were in on this!"

"No Colonel, you misunderstand, they are as much a victim of the Goa'uld as you and I. Nertti was going to destroy their planet once the testing was completed. She chose the U'Tak'an world because of their physiology. It's more resistant to the cellular damage than yours."

Jack narrowed his eyes, "I don't care why they were chosen, they sent for us knowing the outcome."

Boch nodded his head, a short bob to and fro, "Yes, they did, but not every world is as upstanding as Earth. Look, it's beside the point. In a way, it was a double set-up of a set-up. They hired me on the side to keep you safe."

"You're kidding." Daniel was now sitting up, staring in disbelief, "My what a tangled web we weave..."

"You can say that again." Carter snorted.

Boch glared, "I'd rather you didn't."

"It's a metaphor." Jack snapped, "Get on with it."

"There isn't much more to tell. Nertti hired me to get you, acting as an agent with the U'Tak'ans, the U'Tak'ans hired me to keep you safe from Nertti...and I decided that you coming here would work for everyone's advantage because you can destroy Nertti." Boch concluded.

"Nice to know you think so highly of us." Jack said dryly, "How are we supposed to manage taking out a Mother ship?"

Daniel was nodding, "And beside that, doesn't she have the information backed up somewhere else? It'd be rather stupid and arrogant to have it..." All eyes were fixed on him, "Never mind." Daniel finished lamely.

"Sir, Boch told me the phase generator is highly unstable. All we need is some well-placed C4 and the ship will go up like a firework." Carter explained.

Jack thought about the risks. On one hand, they would have to ring back to the ship, risk capture, and have to figure a way back out of said ship before it blows. Then on the flip side, not acting, dying from cellular decay, some faster than others, and never getting home to warn Hammond... "All right. We'll do this. But it's not for the U'Tak'ans."

Teal'c looked at him severely. Jack swore, "Fine...we'll do it for everyone, happy?"

Teal'c twitched slightly but remained quiet. Janet had been quiet throughout the briefing, but now seemed angry, "Colonel, you are in no condition to go traipsing aboard a Mother ship!"

"I'm not."

"...and furthermore, I insist you stay in that bed, and if I have to..." Janet paused, his reply sinking in, "What?"

"I said-I'm not."

Janet's anger deflated, "Oh."

Jack cast her a tired look, "We'd hurt them more than anything, endanger the mission. We'll stay behind and guard down below. Carter, this is your mission, think you're up for it?"

It was more a rhetorical question than anything, but Carter nodded, "Yes Sir."

"Good luck Major...and Boch?" Jack called, as they began to stand.

Boch paused in unwrapping his body, "Yes?"

"Don't lose my people." He warned.

Boch grinned, a cocky glimmer of self-assurance, "I won't."