DISCLAIMER: The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-1, the goa'uld and all other characters that have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of the people who made them up. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.

Manifestations

Part five

Teal'c carried the sleeping Alysha off the plane once they'd arrived at Denver, Sandra hovering nearby in case she woke and became confused. As they had arrived at McCarran airport, Alysha had become hysterical at the giant machines flying so low and were so noisy and threatening. No matter how much Sandra had tried to calm her down, Alysha would not settle so Janet had to resort to administering a mild sedative, which Alysha was still sleeping off.

As soon as they arrived in the arrivals terminal they were spotted by Jack and Sam who quickly headed towards them.

'Glad you made it, we were getting a bit worried,' Jack said briefly. 'Good trip?'

'Yup, no problems, except Janet had to sedate Alysha,' Daniel reported. 'She freaked when she saw the 'planes and that was the only way we could get her on one.'

'How's Cassandra?' Janet asked as soon as she could, worried for the well-being of her adopted daughter.

'She talked non-stop on the flight back, mostly about Alysha and Hanka,' Sam smiled reassuringly at Janet. 'She was pretty much worn out by the time we got back to the base so I put her to bed in one of the VIP rooms with someone keeping an eye on her.'

They headed towards the exit where two vehicles were waiting for them, Major Ferretti at the wheel of one and Colonel Makepeace in the other.

'Jack?' Daniel asked, curious as to why the leaders of SG2 and SG3 were here as drivers.

'Just a precaution, Daniel,' Jack said in an off-hand manner, even as his eyes were scanning the area to make sure their arrival had gone undetected. 'Maybourne may be a jerk but he's not stupid. I've brought General Hammond up to speed and although he's not happy about this,' Jack grimaced as he recalled his interview with the General, 'he's agreed to make sure Alysha gets to the SGC safely. Ok, Sergeant Brown, Alysha and Teal'c are with me, the rest of you can go with Ferretti. See y'all in Kansas.'

Moments after the two vehicles had departed a black car also left the airport, not getting too close and allowing five or six other cars to stay between him and the vehicles he was following.

XOXOXOX

They'd been on the road for two hours when the second car swerved violently, Ferretti fighting the wheel to bring them to a safe stop before he jumped out, cursing as he kicked the flat tyre. A little further up the road, the car driven by Makepeace pulled over as well. Makepeace started to walk towards the other car when a shout from Jack brought him to full alert. A black car came hurtling around the corner from the opposite direction and screeched to a halt in front of the first car. Four men were out in an instant and surrounding the occupants, Jack could see Sergeant Brown covering Alysha, shielding her from whatever was going to happen.

With Teal'c on one side of the car, Jack on the other and Makepeace bringing up the rear, the four men continued advancing, pulling zat guns out as they advanced. Jack could hear a whining noise and knew the zats were being activated but leant casually against the car door, facing up to the men.

'Howdy there, fellas,' Jack greeted them in a deceptively calm voice, concealing his readiness to spring into action. 'Can we do something for you?'

'Stand aside and no-one will get hurt,' the man in front said, his colleagues flanking him menacingly.

'Oh please,' Jack jeered. 'Don't you think this is a bit of a cliché? Why don't you just take your black suits and your black car and run along and find someone else to intimidate. This whole performance just seems to lack a certain finesse, if you get my drift.'

'Hold your position or we will fire,' the man repeated, this time including the group approaching from the other car. Jack glanced quickly behind him and saw the second group had stopped in their tracks.

Jack took a step forward, his hands raised and continued walking forwards until he was standing in front of the man who appeared to be in charge.

'Look, we don't want any trouble, we just want to fix the tyre and be on our way.' A blue light surrounded Jack, muttering 'Oh crap!' as he crumpled to the ground. Instantly Makepeace was standing in front of the door Jack had left unguarded, seeing out of the corner of his eye that two faces were peering through the window.

'Anyone else want to try?' The man asked, holding his zat gun in clear view, inviting further attempts to resist. 'Ok, in that case…' He walked towards the car, the other three following him while maintaining a close watch on those likely to offer up any resistance. As he stood in front of Makepeace, he waved the zat at him, indicating for him to move out of the way. When Makepeace stood his ground, the gun was aimed and activated, but instead of the blue lightning coming from it, nothing happened. He tried again, when it still didn't work he fell back a few steps and waved one of his friends forward who had no greater success.

Looking at the now advancing SGC personnel, the last two zats were also tried and also failed, but it was too late. After only a short struggle, the four would-be abductors were secured and seated alongside their car to wait for the arrival of help, a long wait most likely as it was now late and the road wasn't well frequented.

Sam, examining one of the zats, was trying to figure out what had gone wrong. It had worked the first time, Colonel O'Neill was evidence of that as he was helped to his feet, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it, as she discovered when she aimed at a passing rodent and hit it, causing it to keel over and lie twitching.

'Oops!' Sam exclaimed as she realised what she had one. 'Sir, there's nothing wrong with the zat, it's working perfectly normally.'

'So I see,' Jack said dryly as he watched the rodent, which was now starting to come round and showing signs of agitation. 'You're going to have to work it out later, Carter, our priority now is to get back to the SGC pronto. We'll go ahead and get Alysha to safety, follow on as soon as you can.'

Half an hour later, only the black car was left with its four black-suited occupants working to release themselves.

XOXOXOX

SG1, Sergeant Brown and General Hammond were seated in the briefing room, waiting for news from the infirmary. Shortly after they had arrived at the SGC, Alysha had passed out and her breathing had become laboured, now Dr Fraiser and her team were working hard to stabilise her condition. While they waited, Hammond turned to SG1 for some explanations.

'You do realise that Colonel Maybourne has barely been off my back since you absconded with Alysha. Now I want some explanations.'

'Well sir, Cassie dreamt about one of her friends from Hanka, that she was being held by Maybourne, so Teal'c and I went to investigate. We found Alysha being held in the same facility that we were staying in and got the impression that she was being subjected to some very unpleasant tests - probably the tests they really wanted to carry out on Carter and Cassie. Anyway, we figured that Alysha wasn't exactly happy at this situation so we engineered the situation so we could get her out of there. Turns out she is Cassie's friend after all.' Jack briefly described the circumstances surrounding the incident.

'I thought everyone had died on that planet?' Hammond looked puzzled.

'Yes sir, they did,' Sam jumped in. 'Sergeant Brown may have an explanation though.'

'Go ahead Sergeant,' Hammond turned to the silent newcomer.

'I was on duty two weeks ago when the alarms went off in storage room seven alpha and we found Alysha standing next to a stone slab. When the security cameras were checked, there was no sign of Alysha entering the room.' Sergeant Brown paused, tiredness and the stress of the situation only now beginning to take its toll as the adrenaline she'd been surviving on for the last few days began to subside. 'Colonel Maybourne seemed to think it was significant, but I'm not sure how. He arranged for me to be transferred to his own command as I was the only one who could get Alysha to co-operate. I'm beginning to wish I hadn't been involved now.' She looked around, suddenly worried that she'd said the wrong thing.

'I don't know, Sergeant,' Jack drawled casually. 'You've done a pretty good job of protecting her interests as much as anyone could in the circumstances. If you hadn't been there and acted as you did, who knows what she could have been put through?'

'Thank you, sir.' Sandra acknowledged the comment, her voice very quiet now.

Hammond opened his mouth to speak when the lights flickered briefly before plunging them all into darkness, the back up systems taking a few moments to kick in. The next instant, alarms were sounding and a request for assistance in the infirmary.

As one, the occupants of the briefing room were on their feet, Sergeant Brown, still unfamiliar with the layout of the SGC, tagging behind the others, her presence forgotten for the moment.

As they reached the infirmary, Dr Fraiser was outside sending the gathered SF's away.

'It's alright, gentlemen, everything is under control now.' Fraiser, seeing General Hammond and SG1 at the back of the group, beckoned them forward, leading them in to the infirmary while the security personnel dispersed.

'What's going on here?' Hammond asked, looking around to see what caused the alarm.

'I'm not sure, sir,' Fraiser said. 'Alysha woke up and panicked when she didn't know where she was. Soon after, the lights went off and the equipment all went haywire - the nurses were running around trying to make sure the critical patients weren't being affected, then once Alysha recognised me, everything seemed to go back to normal.'

A small sound from the back of the group drew attention to Sergeant Brown.

'You have something to add?' Hammond asked her.

'Well, something similar happened back at Area 51. The electronic equipment seemed to stop working when Alysha was fighting what they were trying to do to her. They had to sedate her before they could do any tests.'

'What about the zats, sir?' Sam remembered the incident with the NID earlier. 'When the NID tried to fire them, they wouldn't work. No wonder Colonel Maybourne was so interested in her.'

'We don't know anything for sure, Carter,' Jack interrupted Sam before she could continue expanding her theory.

'We know that Colonel Maybourne was holding Alysha and carrying out experiments on her. That seems to be evidence enough that there's something unusual about her.' Sam defended her ideas.

'Maybe, but I just think we should wait until we've got more proof before jumping in with both feet.'

'Nothing is going to be happening any time soon, I'm afraid,' Dr Fraiser spoke up. 'Alysha has been through a pretty tough time recently and we didn't bring her here just to undergo more intrusive tests. I'm hoping that she'll be willing to help us out when she's feeling better. She should sleep through the rest of the night, you can speak to her in the morning if she's up to it. Good night.' Janet spoke with a finality that had those not belonging to the infirmary half way out before they even realised. Janet caught Sergeant Brown by the arm before she too could leave, nodding at Sam to indicate she would look after the Sergeant.

'Yes doctor?' Sandra asked politely.

'How are you feeling?' Janet asked, her eyes searching Sandra's appearance - the pale face, the shaking hands and the bloodshot eyes with dark shadows underneath them.

'I'm fine, a bit tired, but I'm sure a good night's sleep will sort me out.' Sandra smiled wanly at the doctor, not wanting to be a bother to anyone.

'Well, seeing as you're here, I'd like to do a quick medical,' Janet smiled reassuringly at the other woman who was looking worried. 'It's ok, it's just routine for anyone working here. Now, just hop up on the bed over there and put this gown on.'

Half an hour and an armful of blood later, Sandra was settled, protesting all the way, into one of the infirmary beds.

'You're exhausted physically and mentally,' Janet insisted. 'And you seem to be a little anaemic. Besides, I'd like you to stay anyway as Alysha knows you best and if she does wake up, there'll be a familiar face here.'

At this last statement, Sandra caved in and was soon fast asleep.