TITLE:-Outpost
Author:-Raj
Spoilers:- Some spoilers for Season 5 Summit, Last Stand
Summary:- The Tok'ra come to Earth to inform the SGC of an alarming development.
Disclaimer: All the usual disclaimers apply
Precisely one hour later the four members of SG1 sat around the long polished wood conference table in the briefing room. They talked quietly among themselves while waiting for General Hammond to join them. Jack got up and went to refill his hot chocolate from the small desk at the side of the room that had the refreshments on it. As he turned to come back, his mug full and steam rising from it, General Hammond exited his office and entered the briefing room. The three seated members of SG1 rose up as he entered. The general waved them down with his hand.
"At ease people" he said
Everyone sat back down and the General looked towards Colonel O'Neill.
"So Colonel what happened?" he asked
O'Neill took a final sip of hot chocolate then started to reply.
"Well sir to begin with it was all very routine, going like clockwork. As soon as we got through Daniel and I went to the ruins while Carter and Teal'c established a perimeter. By the time they met up with us he was well into his digging up old stuff and getting all exited about it."
At that comment Daniel looked up from his papers with a questioning stare. Jack never missed an opportunity to have a dig at his profession even after all the years they had known each other. Carter was struggling to suppress a smile and as for Teal'c, well you just couldn't tell, but one eyebrow did appear to be ever so slightly raised. O'Neill appeared oblivious to Daniels stare as he continued to relate events to the General.
"You know me and the digging thing don't get on too well", - General Hammond rolled his eyes and let out a sigh-, "So after about an hour or so the Major, Teal'c and myself went on a patrol of the perimeter. We'd been gone about twenty minutes and were on our way back when the Jaffa surprised us from out of the forest."
"Didn't our initial intel indicate that there was no Go'auld activity on this world" questioned Hammond.
"Yes sir it did" replied O'Neill
"So where did they come from?"
"You know sir I would've liked an answer to that too but I was too busy running to stop and do a questionnaire "
The General sighed again "O.K. and from then I guess a fire fight and extraction back through the gate" he asked.
"Yes sir that would about sum it up. Oh did I mention that there was lots of running sir. Lots" emphasized O'Neill.
"O.K Colonel I get the picture" the General looked to Daniel , "Dr Jackson I know you didn't get long but were you able to-----". The warning klaxons and flashing lights suddenly interrupted the General mid sentence. Sergeant Davis's voice boomed out of the overhead PA system.
"Unscheduled offworld activation"
They all stood up and made their way down the stairs from the briefing room to the control room. They drew level with the sergeant just as the event horizon blew out from the stargate then settled back as it established itself. The iris spiralled in rapidly obscuring the view of the newly opened incoming wormhole. Down in the gate room troops had piled in and had weapons trained on the stargate, nervously expectant.
"Have we got any teams offworld sir?" asked Major carter
"None Major" replied Hammond
The screen in front of Sergeant Davis started displaying an iris code, "Sir receiving Tok'ra idc" he reported.
"Open the iris sergeant," ordered Hammond.
"Oh this day's just getting better by the minute" said O'Neill sarcastically. The other members of SG1 and Hammond all turned to look at the Colonel.
"What?" he exclaimed
As they all turned back Jacob Carter and another unknown Tok'ra emerged from the stargate. Sam waved at Jacob as he looked up at the control room. The group made their way down to the gate room to meet the visitors.
"Stand down" Hammond ordered the troops as he entered the gateroom. They lowered their weapons and swiftly filed back out leaving the gateroom in its standby mode.
"Hi dad" said Sam embracing her father.
"Hi Sam its good to see you" replied Jacob planting a kiss on her cheek before letting go of his daughter. As Jacob stared at his daughter he realised once more how much he missed seeing her. It was times like this that he wished he were still back on Earth. The irony there was that had he stayed on Earth he would be dead and couldn't see her anyway. And if he hadn't have been ill then he and Sam probably would have carried on as they had back then and hardly spoke, so they would have been even farther apart. It had been his illness that had finally broken down the barriers between them, allowed them to get past the crap in their lives that was preventing them from being close. It was also his illness that had allowed Sam to show him what she really does and give him the opportunity of a healthy life. It had let him see that his daughter wasn't wasting her talent doing deep space telemetry and that she was actually contributing more to the world than even he could have dreamed possible.
He nodded hello's round the rest of the group ending with General Hammond.
"Hello George".
"Jacob, welcome back," acknowledged the General. "Can I assume from your unexpected visit that something's come up" he asked.
"You could say that George, there is a problem we'd like to discuss".
Hammond took a step back and made a sweeping gesture with his arm towards the door, "Well you know the way" he said.
Up in the briefing room everyone took a seat around the conference table.
"Ok Jacob whenever you're ready" said Hammond once everyone was settled.
"Thanks George. Ok well firstly let me introduce Garin who is the host to the symbiote Ma'tak"
The other Tok'ra gave a deep nod of his head, "It is an honour to finally meet the warriors of the Tauri".
Jacob continued "Ma'tak has for sometime now been undercover in the service of Yew"
"Us ?" questioned O'Neill playfully
"Don't be an ass Jack. Lord Yew, Go'auld system lord, remember him""Sorry couldn't resist," replied O'Neill a boyish grin on his face, which quickly disappeared as he realised General Hammond was looking at him.
Ma'tak seemed bemused by the interruption not quite understanding the subtleties of human sarcasm.
"Gentlemen can we continue please" said Hammond aiming the comment more towards O'Neill than Jacob.
"Yes of course George" replied Jacob, "As I was saying Ma'tak has been undercover in Lord Yew's service for sometime and has been feeding him intel on Anubis's troop and fleet movements and any plans we knew about to attack him. So far its worked well, we've enabled Yew to avoid some very costly battles that may have either wiped him out or brought him very close. The advanced intel has even allowed him to ambush a few of the smaller attempts on him and deal Anubis a few small blows, not anything significant but enough to prove he's still a thorn in Anubis's side.
"Now is it just me or does anyone else here think it's a bad idea to help a Go'auld from getting destroyed?" asked O'Neill.
"Jack if was any other system lord attacking Yew we'd probably agree with you but you have to look at the bigger picture. Right now Anubis has thrown the system lords into chaos with his return and so now is the best time for him to consolidate his position. Yew is the biggest threat to that so anything we can do to prevent Anubis from removing Yew from the power structure and slow down his plans is a small price to pay. Apart from that from the intel we've got back its annoying the hell out of him that Yew keeps avoiding his attacks. At the moment he's doing everything in his power to find out how Yew's getting his information. Anubis's doesn't know whether it's one of his own leaking intel or whether Yew has infiltrated his ranks. Either way he's mighty PO'ed over it. The other advantage is that if the other system lords see Yew making a stand against Anubis and surviving they might hold together and go against him as well and try and take him down in an effort to maintain their current status quo. We also know thanks to Daniel at the system lords meeting that until Anubis is fully reinstated as a system lord he's outside of the protected planets treaty and he'd vowed to take out Earth for the others. Well at the very least if we have him tied up fighting Yew and running round in circles questioning the loyalty of his own ranks then for now he'll leave Earth alone. And that Jack is why we are helping Yew".
"Yeah ok I can see that but you know it goes against the grain it just doesn't sit right helping one of those snakeheads" said O'Neill
"I know its not pretty Jack but a lot of the time this is the most effective strategy against the Go'auld we have. We have to play to their inflated ego's"
"Jacob you said there was a problem to discuss but by the sound of it you bought us some breathing space from Anubis and for me that's not a problem" said Hammond.
"Unfortunately there is a down side out of all this and that's what we need to talk about," replied Jacob
"Here it comes" said O'Neill
Jacob frowned at him before continuing. "As you know Yew was the only system lord to oppose the decision to reinstate Anubis and so as a consequence of that and the attacks on him and Anubis's apparent jump in the level of technology he possesses, Yew has been on the search for any technology that he can use that may give him a tactical edge over Anubis in battle. In fact he been using as many of his troops as he could possibly spare to search as many worlds as he can. Well it now looks like it's paid off. When Ma'tak found out what Yew had stumbled across he gathered as much detail as he could and then slipped away to report back to us. I'll let him brief you on what he brought back".
Ma'tak leaned forward placing both hands on the table. "One of the expeditions that Yew sent out has found an old derelict underground outpost. From the evidence they have found it would seem that this was once an outpost of the Ancients. The Go'auld have for a long time sought out further technology of the Ancients other than the stargates . Yew has sent his best people to the outpost to establish if there are any weapons or technology that he can use. The worst part of their discovery is that once they started searching the outpost it began to power itself back up and now Lord Yew is in possession of a fully working Ancient Outpost".
Ma'tak took a moment to look round the group sitting at the table. The stunned looks on the faces of the Tauri said more than words possibly could.
Colonol O'Neill was the first to speak and summed up the feelings of everyone
"Oh Crap"