Author's Ramblings: Thanks to everyone for your reviews and for staying with this story. My creative muse for this story was a little on the dry side (also known as writer's block) for awhile there, but I am back and ready to get going on it.
Mara Jade Jedi - I just thought I would mention that I saw your review and I hope to be doing my own happy dance (snoopy dance) here really soon. LOL Thanks for all your reviews and encouragement, as well as keeping me on my toes.
Lieberman really was an idiot, Jack thought as he sat at the table listening to him ramble on about what he had come up with. Daniel spent most of the time correcting the man as Lieberman told them what he had translated.
They were all sitting around the briefing room table, Teal'c and Dr. Brightman on one side, Daniel and Mac on the other, with Lieberman holding court at the front of the room. One of the pictures to be translated was up on a screen for them all to see.
He found himself watching Mac as Lieberman and Daniel argued over one of the symbols in the picture. He had to admit that he was proud of the man who was sitting there facing the fact that his entire belief system was totally upended and he still took it all in stride. He grinned to himself, remembering the look on Mac's face when he and Daniel explained the fact that they were not alone in the universe and that they had traveled across the galaxy via the Stargate. He had gone from disbelief to acceptance in the space of a few minutes, and it wasn't until the Stargate activated to allow SG-13 to come back from their mission that Mac finally started to get into the spirit of things.
The memory of Mac's excitement at seeing the event horizon of a wormhole caused Jack to grimace. He would be the first to admit that all the physics and scientific theories went over his head, but to be shown up by his own brother… well, it just didn't seem right. Mac had asked a thousand and one questions regarding the Stargate and all the science that went with it and Jack finally had to remind him of Lindsay's predicament to bring him back to Earth.
He had called Carter, asking her to come back to the base knowing full well that the two scientists would have a field day, but he also knew that she had handled the NID rogue agents before and she would be a major asset to this operation.
Jack stared at the pad of paper that was on the table in front of him, wondering if he'd done the right thing in telling Mac about the Stargate program. He had deliberately left out a great deal of details, telling Mac only what he needed to know to accomplish their efforts of saving Lindsay. To that end, Mac was only told about the Gate, planetary travel and the Asgard. Jack sighed when he thought of the paperwork he was going to have to process to have Mac sign in order to keep him quiet.
"Are we boring you, Jack?" Daniel asked.
Jack looked up at him and gave him a small smile before saying, "Huh? Oh. No, I was just wondering who was going to win this year's hockey championship."
"You would do well to believe that the Bruins will be victorious in this endeavor," Teal'c spoke up surprising Jack.
"What makes you think they will win?" Jack asked, intrigued that Teal'c had even paid attention to the sport.
"Captain Bertelli spoke of this to his companion the other day as he was eating lunch," Teal'c responded. "He had made a very convincing argument."
Jack was just about to inform Teal'c that Bertelli was wrong and why he thought so when Carter walked in. "Sorry I'm late. What'd I miss?" she asked Jack. She did a double take when she saw Mac, then turned to Jack with a look of shock. "Uh sir?" she asked as she looked back at Mac.
"Carter," Jack said, taking pity on her. As comical as this was becoming, he hated to see her look so distressed. He pointed at himself when she looked at him and he grinned at her.
"Colonel Carter," Mac said getting up to go over to her. "I've heard a lot about you, or at least that you are the one I can talk to about the Stargate. My name is MacGyver, but you can call me Mac." His smile was warm when he made the introductions and Jack ignored the urge to wipe the smile off of his face with a swift punch.
"Oh my God," Carter exclaimed. "Oh… um… I'm pleased to meet you sir… I mean Mac." Her face had turned red with embarrassment, although she was trying hard to hide it.
"Carter," Jack said a little forcibly, "we're facing a problem with rogue NID and we need your help."
"What sort of problem?" she asked, visibly pulling herself together.
"Mac's daughter has been kidnapped by the NID and they want to trade her safety for the mimic devices and these translations," Jack told her.
"Why your daughter?" she asked Mac, then walked over to stand behind Daniel. "Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" she scolded.
"Yes," Dr. Brightman said, scowling at Daniel. "He's almost as bad as the General when it comes to keeping him down."
"I'm fine, really I am," Daniel insisted. "I promise, once we get this stuff translated and Jack swears that we can go back to that planet, I'll go back to the infirmary to sleep for a week."
"What planet?" Jack asked. "Oh no. You are not thinking of going back to feed Bigfoot. It's not happening, Daniel, so forget it."
"Those people are there, Jack. We all saw them. They've just created an illusion to hide themselves from the Goa'uld. Besides," he said, "Bigfoot is afraid of the fog."
"Well in that case, by all means, go out there and get yourselves killed," Jack said sarcastically.
"As much as I am enjoying this little argument, I would much rather we get this stuff translated so that we can get my daughter back," Mac interrupted, his anger apparent in his posture.
"We'll get her back," Carter told him. "And don't worry about her, they won't hurt her."
"How can you know this?" Mac asked.
"We've handled these people before," she told him. "They won't hurt her. Do you know why they chose your daughter?"
"They knew that she was Jack's niece," Mac told her.
"How did they find that out?" Jack asked. "We've only just become aware of the possibility a week ago."
"I have my suspicions," Mac answered cryptically. "I'll take care of it."
Jack just nodded. "Carter," he said, "I need you to find out who took her and where they took her. What's that guy's name? Barrett? In the meantime, Daniel will get those things translated…, in the infirmary Doc, calm down…, while Teal'c and I do some scouting in the neighborhood…"
"I'll go with you," Mac insisted. "We can start on the south end of town. That's where the phone call came from."
"What are you talking about?" Jack asked. "How do you know that?"
"Wire trace on your phone," Mac replied.
"You had someone put a trace on my phone?" Jack asked, seriously considering shooting Mac right between the eyes.
"Well, you weren't exactly being cooperative in clueing me in on this whole thing. So I rigged it to try to trace the call…"
"You rigged it!" Jack said incredulously.
"Yeah," Mac replied. "It's not that hard. All I did was hook up my laptop to a converter that I spliced into your phone line, and voila, a phone trace. Well, okay so it involved a little more than that," he added as everyone in the room was staring at him, "but you get the idea."
"You rigged it," Jack said again. This guy was a freaking genius. Jack was starting to develop a serious inferiority complex here.
"A friend taught me how to do it," Mac said defensively. "Look, can we just get this show on the road?"
"Yeah," Jack said, eyeing the man warily. What else was he going to pull out of his sleeve?
