The sound of the phone normally took at least two rings to rouse Sam in the middle of the night. Not tonight. She pounced on it before the first ring was through. Paige was still having nightmares—a phase Janet assured her would not last forever—and she had just finally gotten her back to sleep at half past two.
"Carter," she said with more than a little defeat in her voice. This had better be important or she was hanging up.
"The General needs you to come in immediately ma'am. Some associates of your father are here."
The Tok'ra. But it didn't sound as if her father was with them. He had stayed two days on Earth before leaving almost a week ago, so she would have been surprised to see him again so soon. But at the same time, her father was the Tok'ra liaison to Earth, so she wondered why someone else had been sent. "I'll be right there."
"And ma'am? The General said he will have a visitor pass waiting for Paige to speed things up. You are to take her to the infirmary." The curiosity in the airman's voice was apparent.
"Thank you." She hung up the phone and threw on a pair of BDU's without even turning on the light. After lacing up her boots she grabbed a small Minnie Mouse backpack off the floor and threw some stuff in it for Paige. A couple of picture books, a doll, and a favorite blanket. Hopefully whatever the Tok'ra needed wouldn't require her to leave world, but she packed Paige a set of clothes and her toothbrush just in case she needed to stay with Janet.
Paige was less than responsive as Sam lifted her out of bed and packed her into the car in her pj's. She slept the whole way to the base, but protested with a small cry at the disturbance as Sam lifted her out of her car seat once there.
"Shh," Sam said, trying to soothe her back to sleep while she gathered her things. It was an uncharacteristically warm night in mid May, and Sam was thankful Paige hadn't even needed a coat and they were able to move quickly. The airman at the final checkpoint handed the visitor pass to her while she signed in, and then stared with unmasked curiosity at Paige. She could tell the curiosity was killing him, and he had just decided to ask her who her visitor was when Carter cut him off.
"Don't ask, don't tell, airman," she said with a look in her eyes that he knew meant business. He closed his mouth and nodded respectfully.
She thankfully encountered no one else as she made her way to the infirmary. There were no patients currently in the infirmary so whoever was on call was most likely sleeping. The only one around was a young nurse, a lieutenant who had had the misfortune to get the night shift. She didn't look surprised at seeing Major Carter enter with a little girl asleep in her arms, and didn't ask any prying questions, so Sam guessed the General had already spoken to her. Paige was easily settled on one of the empty beds. Sam tucked her in, left the backpack on the end of the bed, and gave Paige a kiss on the forehead before leaving. The lieutenant promised to contact her if Paige woke.
[][][]
Sam entered the briefing room to find the General and two Tok'ra waiting with Teal'c, Daniel, and the Colonel. She sat and helped herself to a much needed cup of coffee. She of course knew Anise, but didn't recognize the newcomer.
"As soon as Doctor Frasier joins us, which should be momentarily, we will begin," the General said. He looked tense, and the need for Janet at this impromptu briefing added to the general air of tension in the room. Before she could even begin to speculate though, Janet entered
"Good morning," Janet said with a bit of irony, taking the last seat at the end of the table and setting a file in front of her.
"I'm sure you are all familiar with Anise," the General began in introduction. "Accompanying her this morning is Sinon, also of the Tok'ra."
"Sinon…" Daniel said, waving a finger in the air. "The Greek man who convinced the Trojans to admit the wooden horse into their city."
"I am he," the man spoke, with the usual discord of the Tok'ra. "Today however, I am here because of a much less successful mission.
"Over the past two months, our operatives have been receiving reports of an illness plaguing Jaffa both young and old. This is entirely unheard of, as the symbiotes that sustain them act as an outstanding immune system. From what we've seen the human slaves have remained unaffected."
"In my experience with Teal'c," Janet interjected, "the only thing I have seen that his symbiote has any real difficult healing is gross bodily harm."
"Indeed." Teal'c frowned, slightly. "Older Jaffa often find it more difficult to maintain their health, but few show sign of illness while still young enough to carry a Prim'ta. Disease is an unknown to the young."
"We have yet to discover the exact nature of the illness," Anise said. "The Tok'ra recently came together to pool our knowledge and decide on some course of action."
"My father mentioned something about a summit last week, but he didn't give me details." Sam was suddenly thinking her father should have been a bit more forthcoming. "What was decided?"
"It was decided to send an operative undercover as a minor Goa'uld to enter trade negotiations with one of the Goa'uld whose Jaffa are infected," Sinon explained. "Information has been limited up until this point. The inability of a Goa'uld to fight an illness plaguing his people is a sign of great weakness to both his Jaffa and other Goa'uld. Therefore the presence of infection is concealed.
"The little information we had before this implicated the System Lord Olokun in the development of this illness. It is theorized that he may be attempting to overthrow the rest of the Council by demonstrating their weakness in front of their own people."
"That's incredible," Daniel said with fascination.
"Incredible?" the Colonel asked skeptically.
"Well, certainly not incredible in a good way," Daniel amended. "This is definitely bad. It is incredible however in that it is an entirely new tactic among the Goa'uld. The Goa'uld fight each other for dominance with brute force and posturing. And even then, the ships and technology they use are stolen. They don't develop anything. Modify what they've found, maybe."
"Then how have they been able to create something as complex as a virus, bacteria, or whatever this is, without killing themselves?" Sam added. "Has your operative discovered anything of that nature?" At that question, even Anise looked tense.
"Unfortunately," she began, "we lost contact with that operative twenty-six hours ago."
Cold seeped into Sam's bones as she realized why Hammond was so tense. "It's my father, isn't it." It was more of a statement then a question, and Anise nodded an affirmative.
"Selmak is the only among us who has any experience with Olokun. It has been more than two centuries since he last made so bold a move. There has been no evidence of non-Jaffa infection, so it is most likely your father has been captured, not infected."
"But you're not sure, right?" Sam couldn't help the anger in her voice.
"No, we are not certain," Anise confirmed. "That is why we are here. The human slaves among the Jaffa appear immune. Our numbers are too few to risk another Tok'ra if it is dangerous to us. We believe we know where he is, but cannot attempt a rescue ourselves. SG-1, aside from Teal'c, should be immune, and therefore able to extract your father much more safely."
"Do you even know where to begin looking for him?" the Colonel asked, hoping they were going to be useful as more than just the bearers of bad news.
"His last message was relayed from a mothership of the Goa'uld Olorun."
"I thought it was Olokun?" Jack interrupted.
"Olorun is the greatest enemy of Olokun," Sinon explained. "The two have always competed for a place among the System Lords. While Olokun is a system lord at present, Olorun is not. His armies are still rebuilding since their last battle. It was determined that because of the animosity between them, if Olokun was behind this Olorun would be the worst hit."
"So you expect us to be able to rescue him from a Goa'uld mothership?" Jack asked skeptically.
"The mothership was lightly manned because of illness plaguing the Jaffa," Anise explained. "The mothership is orbit around a planet with a stargate, but the ownership of the planet is in dispute and the gate is therefore very heavily guarded. We have a Tel'tak with cloaking technology that should allow you to approach the mothership without detection.
"We have been monitoring transmissions from the ship to maintain contact with Selmak, and there have been no ring transports or glider launches in the time he has been out of contact. It is likely he is still aboard."
"Colonel," the General said, drawing everyone's attention back to his end of the table. "I want you to take SG-1, minus Teal'c, and Doctor Frasier to that mothership." Sam felt a small relief at that. One of these days her father was going to get into trouble and she wasn't going to be able to help him. "Do your best to find and help Jacob. But even more importantly is—take some samples and discover as much as you can about this sickness. The last thing we need is for Olokun to conquer all of the System Lords without even firing a shot. You'll leave as soon as possible. Dismissed."
I hope you liked it! More is on the way. My posts will probably be somewhat shorter and a little further apart now that my posting has caught up with my writing. And i really do promise there will be J/S in here somewhere. I chose Romance as a genre for a reason, and some scattered subtle UST was not it.
Hopefully Olorun and Olokun will not confuse you too much. Daniel will explain them better in the next chapter.
And i'm taking a bit of a voter poll on whether Jacob/Selmak should live or die. I get the final say, but you guys can definitely sway my decision. Tell me what you want!
There is good stuff to come. Please review, as alway!