Chapter 24 – Plans

Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, puzzled over the transmission that had been picked up by the advance probe sent to the prospective new planet. Even his thousands of years of experience could not help him puzzle out just why a message matching the wide-band frequencies that his people used, sent to a completely different galaxy to the one he was currently residing in, had a data tag with the runes for both his title and name on it.

The scans confirmed that there was nothing detectably sinister about it. Tilting his head to one side, he placed the pearly-white data receptacle on the control board and engaged it. Waiting a few minutes for the computer to compute the data and align any inconsistencies, his only reaction when the data presented itself was to blink. To another Asgard, the tell-tale signs of surprise such as the sudden darkening of skin tone and tilting of his head to the right and a quiver of brow-ridges would have been obvious, despite his automatic curtailing of them.

Projected above the board, facing away at an angle of approximately thirty degrees was a three-quarter scale Colonel Jack O'Neill.

"…sure this is working?...Well, I don't know; you're the techno-whiz…you're sure?" Thor regarded the exchange with an unseen, unheard person off-screen with something akin to amusement. There was no denying that this was Jack O'Neill…or at the very least, his clone.

Apparently receiving an affirmative, O'Neill straightened, still facing away, and Thor deftly commanded a rotation of the image until he could regard the fuzzy, static recording easily, analysing expression and body language as he best could.

"Thor! I'm looking for Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet? Buddy, I know you're there, so you can quit playing hard-to-get!" O'Neill's eyes seemed to change focus, as if he were looking at someone behind him. "Oh, for crying out loud! I'm hurrying…Look, Thor, we could really do with your help right now and, well, I've gotta go; we're late as it is, but I'm not kidding when I say that we need help on the inter-galactic, deadly important for millions scale…You know where to find us. Please!" The image froze in its beginning posture, ready to replay at a command.

Thor blinked again.


Luke had nearly flinched at the three words that echoed the Emperor's in both meaning and tone. So be it. Despite an entirely different accent, culture, and surrounding, they shared the same angry, hateful certainly that those that would not join them would die.

He just hoped that, as he had escaped the Emperor, he would escape Kinsey, though without any losses, as he had lost his father.

Mere seconds later, his stomach had clenched involuntarily as Sam had reached out with the Force, choking the repellent man where he stood. Sam, no, don't give in to your anger, fight it! He thought, unable to get a read on her. He wasn't worried about the weapons aimed at them, and he was aided in swallowing his fear for Sam when Jack muttered something in her ear and she relented, releasing the red-faced, gasping man.

At Kinsey's order, they were all lead away, including SG-1, with the exception of Daniel, who remained behind to talk to Hammond, despite Kinsey's protests.

"Because I can. Because you've been a thorn in my side for far too long already and because I really don't like you!" he had explained to the outraged people with smug satisfaction.

Flashing Leia a far too often used and well practiced reassuring look, he glanced at the others as they were lead down the corridor by the guards that he assumed were on Kinsey's payroll judging by the looks that every other member of the SGC's staff were shooting them. Sam was unreadable; something that was more or less habitual to her, but he could sense the anger of Daniel and Teal'c and see it in their thunderous faces, and he made a mental note to never make the larger of the two even slightly irritable. Jack, on the other had, was making a visible attempt to control his anger, though it simmered just below the surface, ready to erupt at the slightest provocation.

When they reached their destination, he braced himself for the downcast looks of his friends and family, shaking his head minutely at those who couldn't read it through the Force. He wrapped his arms around Mara, even as Leia fell into Han's embrace, drawing strength from their bond. He couldn't imagine how much worse it was for them to be separated from their children; he had most of his family here.

"I won't let him take any of you away and stash you in a facility." Sam's words, spoken suddenly surprised him almost as much as the strength of determination in her tone. She glanced at Jack, who nodded slightly. "We'll leave it until the last minute that it's safe to do so, but we'll get out of here and 'gate to any one of a number of other safe planets."

"Why?" Sam glanced at Mara with a look that screamed 'huh!'

"Why what?"

"Why wait until the last minute? Surely, it would be better to do it sooner rather than later." The second part of Mara's response was a statement, not a question.

Jack gave a lopsided half-smile that reminded him vaguely of Han. "Well, that depends on whether or not you hope to get help from others." He pointed into the ceiling and Luke felt the majority of the people in the room frown in confusion.

"NORAD?" Daniel queried sceptically.

"No, Daniel, the Asgard." Whoever the Asgard were, it was apparently a good thing, because Daniel's eyes lit up and understanding coursed through his body. "So you managed to find a 'gate address for them?"

Jack shrugged and glanced at Luke. "Well, we found co-ordinates to send a message to." Luke couldn't blame him for being sceptical…he'd been much the same when he'd first been introduced to the Force. "Sam and I sent a message using records of the cool holo-thing and stuff. Built a holo-projector…kind of."

"Oh, so what did he say?"

"Uh…well that's the problem."

Daniel narrowed his eyes at Jack, a long-suffering annoyance evident. "Jack…"

Sam cut in, her voice laced with amusement, "It's not exactly a problem, we just didn't get a reply from him. All that means, though, is that he might have been busy."

"Well, of course…maybe he was just taking a leak?"

"Han…" Luke warned, although he understood just why Han was so put out by it. He ignored Mara as she silently pointed out to him that he was using the exact same tone as Daniel had used mere moments before. "We didn't know if it would work; all we had was what the Force told me when I meditated-"

"Oh great! You just hide behind your hokey religion, kid, because I'm getting out of here right now." He moved for the door, roughly shrugging off Leia's hand and glaring at her. "No, Leia, I'm not going to just let them take us away to rot on some backwater planet while our kids grow up without their parents."

Chewie roared his agreement and Luke tried to placate them both, laying a Force blanket over their anger and trying to extinguish it.

Instead, Han turned angrily on him. "Would you stop that!"

"Han, he's just trying to stop you from doing anything stupid."

"Oh really, princess? I don't see you doing anything clever…" Luke raised his eyebrows in surprise. Han hadn't called Leia 'Princess' in years, at least not in the company of others. He sensed from Leia, however, that he reverted to the pet name when he was upset, or angry. It showed just how much this was affecting him.

"Han, please…"Leia implored, her eyes shining with tears.

His shoulders slumped as the fight went out of him, and it was only now that Luke realised that everyone else had been standing back until now.

"You honestly think that I would let them take us?" Sam questioned, stepping forwards and raising an eyebrow. "Everyone in this room knows just how I feel about being imprisoned, restricted, or enslaved…I nearly lost it out there. I may not have acted out of anger, but I let my anger colour my actions and reacted instead of waiting for the appropriate time. We could have got out of here then…but at what cost?" She paused in her diatribe, having apparently realised that only as she said it out aloud. She was reluctant to continue, obviously sensing the surveillance equipment dotted around the room.

"What about the-"

"Ah." Jack cut him off and held up a hand, slipping the other into his pocket. "The bugs?" he finished for Corran, grinning slightly and revealing a small mass of wires and circuitry. "Sorted."

"So what's the plan?"

Jack shrugged. "One or two people head for the infirmary PDQ, grab enough sedative to knock out a herd of rhino's, come back for everyone else, head for the gate via the armoury and get the hell outta dodge."

"…That's it? That's your plan?" Mara's scathing reply displayed her incredulity at the seeming idiocy of the plan. "That sucks more than a mynock in a Star Destroyer."

"Hey!" Jack scowled at her, not liking her dismissal, and Luke raised an eyebrow in amusement. Jack leaned slightly towards Sam without looking away from Mara. "What's a mynock?" he muttered audibly out of the corner of his mouth.

Sam simply rolled her eyes and ignored him. "Mara, I know it sounds like a bad plan, but we are not, under any circumstances going to give the people of this facility anything bigger than a headache."

"Except Felger, can I deck Felger?"

As usual, Jack was masking his discomfort and worry with bad jokes and sarcasm, and Sam was not going to pay it any attention any more "Shut up. This might sound crazy to you but-"

"So was flying a single X-wing down the trench of the first Death Star, taking off the auto lock, and firing a missile down a two-metre exhaust pipe," Corran commented with a wry smile.

Luke levelled his gaze at Corran for a moment. You know, they've got a point, Mara.

Shut up, Farm Boy. "Alright, so who goes? And I still think this is crazy."

"This coming from-"

Luke's reply was cut off by Leia, who was getting fed up of what she perceived as time wasting. This wasn't getting her any closer to her children. "Enough. Can we please just get this over with!"

The previously bickering friends had the grace to look sheepish for a moment before they were immediately serious.

"Sam and Corran." Jack informed them, automatically falling into his role as nominal leader and dropping his distraction techniques.

"O'Neill, would not perhaps you or I be better equipped for this task? We would not stand out as much as a stranger."

"It's not a matter of who stands out; Corran can project the image of an empty room to people, but he needs someone to direct him, and Sam knows best what sedatives to get." He clapped a hand on Teal'c's shoulder. "Sorry, buddy, but that's the way it is."

"Indeed."

"So it's just a case of-" A bright white light surrounded him and blanked out his vision…"getting the…I coulda sworn I was talking to a room full of people a minute ago."

"O'Neill."

Jack spun on his heels. "Thor, buddy, you have no idea how glad I am to see you!" He resisted the urge to stick his finger in his ear and wiggle it.

Thor tilted his head to one side, "You require my assistance?"

"Yeah, actually. Listen, I'm gonna be missed if I'm not back there like, right now, so do you mind beaming us down there?"

"Are you in trouble, O'Neill? My initial scan indicated that you were being held prisoner with a number of other people."

"Well….kinda. I'll explain down there….please!"

Before the delicate alien had finished his nod, Jack's vision suffered another white-out before coalescing into the middle of the room he'd just vacated. Thor stood just to his side, blinking at the strangers. Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw Corran brush at his ear.

"I was not aware the people of Earth had made contact with any unknown alien species," he commented calmly. "Greetings. I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet."

Before anyone else could return the greeting, Sam's voice sounded from behind them, a trace of amusement evident, mixed with pleasure at seeing another old friend again.

"Hey, Thor; long time, no see."

Thor turned with a speed that Jack wouldn't have expected him capable of. At least, not without his over-sized head snapping off of his scrawny neck.

"Major Carter!"

"Jedi Carter," she corrected reflexively.

"I thought that you had expired."

"No, no…I just got taken to a galaxy far, far away and made into a slave. How've you been?"

"I am well, thank you. We are winning the war against the Replicators, but our home galaxy has been left ravaged. It was you who devised a way to contact us?"

Sam shrugged a wicked glint in her eyes. "Jack and I."

Thor blinked.

And blinked again.

"O'Neill helped you to create a holographic communicator capable of interfacing with Asguard technology?"

"Oh, for crying out loud! I thought I was 'the hope of the Asgard'!" Jack's frustration was evident for everyone to see as he threw his arms up in disgust.

"We saw the potential in you, but we did not think that you had the patience or the knowledge."

"Gee, thanks."

"You are most welco-"

"Sarcasm!"

"I see." A long pause followed, indicating that he didn't see, but that he accepted it as a part of human nature. "For what reason did you seek out my assistance?"

Jack quickly related the short version of why they were all there, pausing only when Daniel burst in, angry and momentarily shocked to see the small grey figure. Scowling at him, Jack finished his tale and turned his gaze to the small alien, scrutinising him for the slightest indication of what he thought. He was thoroughly unimpressed when Thor's only response was to blink, inform them that he had to check something aboard his ship and would return in a few moments.

"Sam…do the Asgard have cloning technology?"

Sam frowned. "Yeah; their entire existence is based on it. Why?"

Luke nodded thoughtfully. "In the past, when I've come into contact with clones, I've always sensed this strange kind of…buzzing through the Force. I felt something similar just now."

Sam nodded in understanding. "You mean like you've got water in your ear?" she questioned.

"I suppose," Luke replied, though he wasn't quite satisfied with the analogy.

Jack belatedly realised the reason for his urge to stick his finger in his ear had disappeared with Thor and wondered what could cause that kind of reaction.

"The Asgard clone their bodies and transfer their consciousness," Sam explained before he had the chance to ask.

"That might be why it's not a full blown 'buzz'," Corran proffered. "With the Emperor and Thrawn's clones, they had to use Ysalimiri to counter-act whatever it was that made the cloned minds go crazy."

Daniel looked vaguely disgusted. "You mean you actually cloned a human mind!"

"Not us, the Emperor."

"Still, that's…"

"DanielJackson, why do you find the idea of cloning a human mind so much more abhorrent than the cloning of a body for another mind?"

Daniel looked at Teal'c askance, contemplating the question. "It's just…" he shrugged, unable to find the words to describe it. "I dunno."

"Wow. Even Daniel's lost for words."

Daniel shot Jack a venomous glare, wondering if anyone would notice his disappearance.


Janet Frasier-Jackson was seething with anger and - despite her oath as a doctor - was finding it hard not to shift the movement of her fingers ever so slightly and finish what Sam had begun earlier. Reigning in the urge, she finished checking him over and stepped back, her mouth a hard thin line and her brows knotted tensely.

"I can see nothing wrong, General; there are no signs of any kind of physical damage and the only indication that Representative Kinsey was not faking injury is the discolouration of his face."

She could see her own anger reflected in the pulsing of a large vein in Hammond's head, although a glimmer of mild amusement fluttered for a split second at the sight of Kinsey spluttering and protesting that he was not in any way faking it, and that was why both he and the CRDO had decided that it would be best for the aliens to be secreted away in a secure location.

Janet clenched her fists and slowly loosened her jaw from its determined grinding. "With all due respect, Representative, I don't think you understand the implications of what you're about to do." The way she said it made it clear that all the respect she felt he was due was non existent. "From what I've been told, I gather that these people are from an extremely powerful race with technology far superior to our own-"

"Oh, I understand that entirely, Doctor; why do you think I'm so eager to…work with them?"

"And that technology is currently in the grasps of a Goa'uld who has apparently outwitted their best tacticians and is in a position to take over. If the Goa'uld manages that, then what little hope Earth had for a future is gone, especially without the skills of SG-1!"

Even Hammond was a little shocked at the outburst from the pint-sized woman, and he had seen her fighting to protect a patient that others would gladly have killed.

Kinsey pulled his tie closed, making sure to keep it a little loose as he glared at the woman before him. "Doctor Jackson, I don't think that you are in any position to make these claims in light of the fact that your husband and three of your friends - one of whom had been presumed dead until recently - are about to be carted off for their part in the endangering of this planet." He reached for his Jacket and began to shrug it on. "Jackson has already informed me of the danger I will be putting this planet in, and that 'Earth's best chance for survival is the knowledge and co-operation of Jack O'Neill and these aliens'." He brushed some imaginary lint off of his shoulder and sneered down at Janet. "And the sad thing is I think that he actually believes them. General, Doctor, good-bye." He turned on his heel and left, his goons following behind him without paying Hammond the least respect.

"Doctor…Janet, believe me, I want to wipe that look off of his face just as much as you do, but the people of this base and this planet need us here, where we can minimise the damage." He sighed heavily and for a moment, Janet saw a tired old man long past retirement age and dying to just go to sleep and leave it all behind.

She moved to the briefing room chair beside him and gave his hand a little squeeze, forcing the part of her that was always on call to ignore the frailty and thinness that had marched on with the disappearance of SG-1 again. She knew she had been less than a hundred percent with the loss of Daniel, but she had naively thought that everything would be okay now that he was back, and with Sam in tow, no less. Hammond had known that it would not be the case and she didn't doubt that his blood pressure had sky-rocketed.

Hammond looked up and gave her a brief smile. "This is their fight now; we've just got to trust them."

She returned the smile. "That's what I was afraid of," she commented, half joking.


Sam sighed and scanned the room, noting that its listless occupants looked as bad as she felt. Since being escorted back here, Daniel had been uncommonly quiet, and Sam could only guess that it had something to do with the fact that wherever he was being taken, the chances of Janet or Cassie visiting would be slim to none.

Sensing two familiar presences approaching - one human, one alien - she looked towards the door, waiting a few long minutes until the guards finally gave in and allowed her father to enter.

Seeing her brief wave, he made his way over to her, eyes narrowing microscopically as he noticed just how close she was sitting to Jack. Ignoring it studiously, he sat himself down beside her fluidly and the voice at the back if her mind pointed out to her how little he had changed, and how unusual it was for a man of his age to be able to move like that. She ignored it and focussed on what he was saying.

"I spoke to the Tok'ra High Council and told them about the situation. I'm sorry, Sammy, but they refused to help in any way. According to Garshaw, 'the risks involved are too high. The Tok'ra alliance with Earth does not warrant their action on your behalf'." He was speaking quietly so as not to disturb the other people in the room.

Sam shrugged. "Can't say I'm surprised," she replied just as quietly.

Jack remained quiet, sensing that Jacob was just itching to yell at him for something, even if it was just for his won piece of mind.

"I have, however, been ordered by the council to investigate this Goa'uld of yours and 'take appropriate action', whatever that means." His head dipped, and he relinquished control to Selmak.

"I agree with Jacob on this, Samantha. The risk that this poses is too high to be ignored."

Jack gave the Tok'ra and host a sharp look. "So this means…?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Jacob and I will accompany you when you return to this other galaxy."

Jack sighed and muttered something under his breath, making the corners of Sam's mouth turn up for a second.

A bright light flashed once again and they jumped to their feet as Thor re-materialised in front of them again.

"You don't write, you don't call…" Jack joked, hiding his apprehension at the news that Thor would hopefully be bringing.

At the back of her mind, Sam registered the slight shock and awe displayed by the others in the room who weren't used to the Asgard technology yet.

"I was not gone for long, O'Neill; there was no need to contact you."

"He was joking, Thor; ignore him," Sam cut in, waving a hand vaguely at Jack and shooting him a half-smirk. "Will you be able to help us?"

"That will not be possible, Major Carter."

Sam was shocked to the point that she didn't even register being called 'Major' again. "You mean you can't help us?"

"No."