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 seven

'Well folks, I guess we call it a night,' Jack stretched his cramped limbs and stifled a yawn. He had been working with Daniel and Teal'c sorting through mission reports and using their own knowledge of their allies to come up with a list of possibilities for a new home for Alysha. 'How many have we got?'

'Fourteen who are advanced enough,' Daniel scanned through the list. They had started by listing all their off-world allies, winnowing out all those who were either in too volatile a location or were less advanced than the people of earth. Now Daniel was referring to the short list they had drawn up. 'Including the Nox and the Tollans.'

'Ok,' Jack frowned at these two. 'We'll probably have to discount them as we have no way of getting in contact with them. Anyway, we can't decide anything until we know the extent of Alysha's abilities. Anyone want to grab something to eat?' Jack stood up and reached for his jacket, freezing as he did so.

'What was that?' Jack looked around wildly, trying to see where the noise had come from.

'To what are you referring O'Neill?' Teal'c looked perturbed at Jack's odd behaviour.

'That noise. It sounded like someone was calling for help,' Jack raced to the door and looked up and down the deserted hallway. 'Must be overwork or something.' Jack tried to brush the feeling off but he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, alerting him that something was amiss. 'There it is again.'

'I heard it that time,' Daniel frowned as he tried to focus on the source of the noise. 'It's like it's coming from a distance.'

The next time it came, Teal'c could also hear it and the words were clearly recognised.

"Cassie, help me. He's trying to take me away. Help me. Please, someone help me."

'Alysha!' Jack cried out as he raced towards the elevator, the other two close behind him. The elevator seemed to take forever to arrive, the doors took an age to open and a lifetime must have passed by the time they arrived on the infirmary level. By the time they arrived in the infirmary they found the room in darkness alerting them to the fact that something was very wrong: even during the night shift there would be the glow of the side lights to enable the staff to do their rounds and it was barely nine o'clock in the evening.

Jack reached over to snap the main lights on but nothing happened, the darkness persisted. Teal'c, whose eyes saw much better in the dark than the humans made his way to Dr Fraiser's office and returned with flashlights which he proceeded to hand out. With the aid of this light they were able to see several of Janet's nurses passed out on the floor, the patients in the infirmary all fast asleep, not disturbed by the bright lights shining on their faces. Daniel, kneeling down beside one of the nurses to check on her condition, found himself growing light-headed at the same moment as Teal'c identified the presence of an unusual odour in the air.

Grabbing Daniel roughly, Teal'c called out a warning to Jack before heading rapidly out of the infirmary where he carefully lowered Daniel to a sitting position.

'What's going on?' Jack demanded.

'It is charlyn root,' Teal'c informed him, keeping a careful eye on the now recovering Daniel. 'It is a substance used by the goa'uld to overpower their enemies. It sends them into a deep sleep from which they will not recover for many hours.'

'What about Daniel?'

'Daniel Jackson will not suffer the effects as the substance is now dispersing through the ventilation system and he was only exposed briefly.'

Jack nodded at this brief explanation before grabbing the nearest phone and raising the alert. 'Seal the mountain, no one goes in or out. I want the base searched thoroughly for one or more people with a ten year old girl, if found they are to be detained and advise me immediately.' Jack also requested a HAZMAT team to clear the infirmary and put out a call to bring General Hammond back to the base.

Once he was done, Jack took Daniel with him back to the control room, sending Teal'c off to join the SF's now locking down the base.

Five minutes later Sam, Dr Fraiser and Cassie arrived at the briefing room, full of questions.

'Why is there a HAZMAT team stopping me from getting into my infirmary?' Janet demanded.

'A short time ago we heard what can only be a telepathic cry for help from Alysha. By the time we got to the infirmary, everyone there was unconscious, Teal'c identified some goa'uld substance in the air so we got out. All I know apart from that is that Alysha is missing and I've locked down the mountain.'

'I heard it too, Jack,' Cassie wormed her way under Jack's arm and he instinctively drew her closer. 'I dreamt that Colonel Maybourne was trying to take Alysha away and she was calling out for help. I thought it was only a dream until I heard the alarms going.'

'It's alright Cassie, we didn't understand to begin with either,' Jack reassured the little girl clinging to him, ruffling her hair as he spoke. 'The security checkpoints have all confirmed that Alysha hasn't left the mountain though, she'll be back here soon. Now, why don't you go up and wait in the briefing room with Daniel?'

'Well that's something to add to our list,' Sam smiled at Jack's confused expression. 'When Cassie dreamt about Alysha back at Nellis I assumed it was a one-off, but now that four of you were affected, it's a clear indication that Alysha has telepathic abilities.'

'No wonder Maybourne was so interested in her, she must have seemed like the goose that lays the golden eggs to him.' Jack scowled before returning his attention to the progress of the search, demanding irritably if General Hammond had arrived yet.

'He's on his way down now, sir,' Sergeant Davis informed him. 'And it looks like the search is over, he's bringing company with him.'

XOXOXOX

'They haven't said a word, General,' Jack said as he flung himself into a seat in the briefing room, rubbing his hands over his face tiredly. 'How's Alysha?'

'Captain Carter and Dr Fraiser made up another bed in with Cassie, she should be fast asleep. I've posted two guards outside the room and I've doubled the number of patrols,' Hammond reported grimly. 'Sergeant Brown is still out for the count along with the rest of the infirmary staff and the few patients that were in there.'

'Teal'c said they'd sleep for hours,' Jack acknowledged before continuing his own report of the interrogation of the two men apprehended as they tried to abscond with Alysha. 'All they'll give me is their names, ranks and serial numbers. They won't say what they were doing here, who they're working for or how they got in here. I guess we're going to have to hand them over to the authorities to deal with.' Jack paused before expressing his true feelings on the matter. 'Isn't there any way at all that we can pin this on Maybourne? It just seems a bit of a coincidence that someone tries to abduct Alysha the same day as Maybourne was here. Let's face it sir, not many people know she's here or what her potential is.'

'I agree, Jack,' Hammond looked equally frustrated. 'Unfortunately all we've got is supposition which doesn't give me sufficient grounds to hold those men any longer. They'll be transferred first thing in the morning.'

'In that case, with your permission I'm going to crash in the guest quarters.'

XOXOXOX

'Colonel O'Neill?' A muffled voice came through the closed door, accompanied by a series of loud knocks. Jack groaned and wondered who on earth was calling on him at this time of morning before he recalled where he was. Stumbling out of bed, he wrenched open the door to see an SF staring at him nervously.

'What is it?' Jack snapped, annoyed at being woken.

'General Hammond has asked to see you immediately, sir,' the SF informed him. Jack sighed, then nodded his understanding of the request and closed the door, hurriedly pulling on his clothes, grinning to himself as he realised the SF obviously wasn't used to seeing one of the SGC's most senior officers dressed only in t-shirt and boxer shorts.

'Sir?' Jack asked as soon as he reached the briefing room where the rest of his team and Dr Fraiser were already assembled. 'What's going on?'

'Our two detainees were collected early this morning,' Hammond had a grim look on his face. 'An hour after they left we received a report that the vehicle they were travelling in was involved in an accident and left the road. There were no survivors.'

'Nice,' Jack said sarcastically. 'Maybourne certainly looks after his own doesn't he?'

'We now need to act as quickly as possible,' Hammond turned the conversation around. 'I suspect for as long as Alysha is with us she is going to be a target of interest for the NID. I don't know how long I can keep them off our backs, but I suspect it won't be long before I get orders to hand her over to them, she is after all an asset in our fight against the go'auld.' Hammond's face had a disgusted expression on it as he spoke these words. 'I would say we've got another two days, maximum, before the NID start putting the pressure on. By the end of the day I need as much information as possible on Alysha's abilities and a safe world for her to live on. Dismissed.'

XOXOXOX

'No luck, sir,' Jack grimaced as he walked down the ramp for the sixth time that day. 'Another wipe-out.'

'What did they say?' Hammond looked for more information.

'They are of a pure-bred race, General,' Daniel provided the explanation, an equally frustrated look on his face, 'and their cultural beliefs won't allow them to accept someone not born of the right blood-lines to live with them.'

'That doesn't leave us much choice does it?' Hammond said as he led the way to the briefing room. Through the day, SG1, SG2 and SG3 had been visiting the home-worlds of those who would be suitable to provide a home for Alysha, none of whom were able to help them out for one reason or another.

'There's always Tuplo's people?' Daniel offered, only semi-seriously, knowing that the people from the Land of Light would probably be unable to cope with someone of Alysha's abilities.

'It could still come to that, son,' Hammond returned. 'We know they were more than ready to welcome the Tollans, I'm sure if we asked they would give Alysha a home, and I'm afraid that may be our only choice, unless we can somehow get in touch with the Nox.'

'We can't send a message in the same way the Tollans did, we just don't have the right technology sir,' Sam spoke thoughtfully. 'Even if we tried, the chances are it would take months, probably years for the message to get through. We could just try to dial it up and see what happens. We haven't tried that address since the Tollan left us, it's got to be worth a try.'

'Agreed.'

They headed back down to the control room where Sam's fingers flew over the keys to dial the correct co-ordinates. Sergeant Davis, sitting to one side, counted down as the chevrons locked. After what seemed like an age, Davis announced 'Chevron seven - locked?' He turned to look at Sam, not believing they had managed to connect.

'Send the MALP through, Sergeant,' Sam smiled and nodded at the technician, then returned her attention to watch the MALP's progress through the 'gate and finally it's arrival at the other side.

'Everything looks the same,' Jack announced as they looked carefully for any signs of the people they were looking for, not really surprised when they saw nothing.

'What if they've moved on?' Daniel asked, biting his lower lip anxiously.

'What a little ray of sunshine you are today, Daniel,' Jack said as he patted Daniel's shoulder. 'O ye of little faith. The 'gate opened, it's a sign.'

'There is no sign O'Neill,' Teal'c looked puzzled, still struggling to come to terms with the odd ways of the humans, particularly those of Colonel O'Neill.

'You know, like an omen or something.'

'I see.' Teal'c frowned and returned his attention to General Hammond.

'SG1, you leave as soon as you're ready. Good luck.'