"Finally!" Major Castleman hissed. "Is this it?" The two-day trek through the scratching and biting underbrush took a lot out of the group; the added tension of finally beginning their mission didn't help, but it set their minds on task rather than on their sore feet.
"This is it." Jack replied. "Carter, you and Teal'c take Sg-9 and get ready to blow the ion canons. Castleman, you and your team will move around behind the gate and get set up to get us out of here. Jacob, maybe you should go with Sg-9, they're gonna need all the hands they can get." Castleman gave a quick salute and headed off with his team.
"Right, here," he said, handing Jack a strange looking booklet of some kind. "Daniel might need this to get into the computer." He explained before departing with his daughter. As she was leaving, Jack threw a rock at her back to get her attention.
"Carter!"
"Sir?"
"Be careful!"
"Yes sir!" She said with a smile, then she turned and walked off; Jack had a funny feeling something would go wrong, but he had other things to be concerned about at the moment.
"Looks like it's just you and me Danny boy." Jack said, slapping him on the back. "Are you ready for this?"
"Yeah, I'm ready." He replied, standing up.
"Okay, let's go." Jack dropped his head and Kanan took over.
"Follow me." Kanan led the way silently through the encampment, having to hold Daniel back occasionally when he got too far ahead of himself, and within minutes, they were hiding behind an empty cargo ship. Four jaffa stood guard around the ring platform they needed to use and Kanan already had his zat out. After a quick nod to Daniel, the two rolled out and shot the jaffa three times each.
"Their absence will not go unnoticed for long, we must hurry." Kanan said.
"How do we activate it?" Kanan answered this by pressing a button on one of the gauntlets he had taken from the jaffa, sending them upward into the ship. After taking out several more guards, he and Daniel snuck quietly through the ship, checking around corners and holding their zats out, at last coming to a small room with a computer system in its center.
"How long is this gonna take Daniel?" Jack asked after an hour or so. He was getting annoyed and had begun jumping at small noises in the corridor.
"One more second, wait… Got it!" he whispered. "The naquadah shipment's on the second level cargo hold, and…Yes! It's got a ring platform in it so we can bring the bomb straight up."
"Great, get on the radio with Carter and let her know where and when to send it up, but for gods sake do it fast!" After Daniel relayed the information, he and Jack tread carefully though the corridors and made it in a fairly short amount of time to the second level, walking slowly into the giant room they found.
"What are we waiting for?" Daniel asked, Jack had grabbed him by the back of the shirt and pulled him backwards to hide behind a pile of shipping crates.
"It's a huge shipment of refined naquadah Daniel."
"So?"
"So where are the guards?" Jack said; they waited for another moment and as he had predicted, a jaffa patrol of six that would surely have killed them if he hadn't stopped Daniel came into view.
"Okay Carter, send it up." Jack said into the microphone after they had dealt with the patrol. They waited for a second or two and stared at the rings, but nothing happened.
"What's wrong?" Daniel said when they heard no response.
"Carter, respond." But there was no need to say this. The ring platform activated and Jack saw to his horror, Sam and two members of Sg-9, their hands bound, appear with several jaffa standing around them.
"Tok'ra kree." A voice said from behind Jack. He turned just in time to get a staff weapon slammed in his stomach. It hurt as it always would have, but he recovered quickly with Kanan's help. Daniel suffered the same fate, and Jack had to help his friend walk out from behind the crates to be taken with the others to two holding cells. Daniel and the two Sg-9 members were thrown into one, and Jack and Sam were pushed roughly to the floor in another.
"What happened Carter?" He said untying her hands. She had a large bruise already forming on the side of her neck and was bleeding from the forehead.
"We got into it with some jaffa sir. Teal'c and my dad have the bomb and I told them to bring it up themselves if we couldn't, so it won't be long now." Jack nodded and pushed her chin to the side to see her bruise more clearly.
"What about the ion canons?"
"Those are already handled sir-"
"Carter,"
"We put enough C4 on them to blow them all and then some-"
"Carter,"
"And they're on automatic timer set exactly with the warhead-"
"Carter,"
"So it should all go up in flames exactly two minutes before Baal shows up tomorrow."
"Sam!" Jack said. This caught her attention enough to get her to stop talking. "Why don't you get some rest? Your head looks pretty bad…" Sam would have nodded, but she was already slipping away.
Jack caught her as she fell slowly to the floor and helped her over to a corner. But instead of leaving her alone there, Jack sat down with her and lifted her head into his lap. He cleaned some of he blood away with his jacket sleeve and then moved her hair out of her face. Sam became conscious on and off throughout the night, but she was only able to utter short sentences before drifting back to sleep. One such time, she tried to pull herself to a sitting position, but Jack held her gently down by the shoulder.
"No, go back to sleep Sam, you need to rest."
"Colonel…Jack?"
"Yeah Sam?"
"Are we gonna die here?" Jack didn't have the heart to answer her with what he knew was the truth.
"No, we're not gonna die. You keep fighting, we're gonna get out of here."
"Jack! Jack!" Daniel's voice came drifting in through the barred cell door. Jack gently laid Sam's head on the floor and walked over to the access. Daniel as in an identical cell to his own, one barred door sticking out of four solid walls. He was leaning against the bars and had something concealed in his hand.
"What is it?"
"The notebook Jacob gave me, it's a Tok'ra radio! Teal'c wants to talk to you; catch!" Daniel stuck his arm out through the bars and tossed the book as far as he could. Jack had to lie on the floor and stick his arm up to the shoulder through his door to grab it, and when he did, radio garble issued from it.
"This is O'Neill, come back." He said into the book, not quite sure how he knew how to work it.
"O'Neill, can you here me?" Teal'c asked.
"Yeah Teal'c I'm here, did you get the bomb in place?"
"Indeed. The mission is near completion. What is your current situation?" Jack looked around the cell at Sam and then back across to Daniel.
"Uh, we're prisoners on the ship where the naquadah is and it doesn't look like we're going anywhere fast." More radio garble issued from the book after this statement, causing Jack to hit it against the wall in frustration. "Didn't catch that Teal'c, say again?"
"It may be possible to extract you before the bombs go Jack, we can get your location using the communicator." Jacob answered.
"Negative Jacob, we can't risk two SG teams to get the five of us out. Proceed with the mission as planned."
"Jack we're…" The radio corruption drowned out Jacob's voice and Jack bashed it against the wall several more times.
"Jacob, Jacob, come in?" No reply. "Jacob please respond." Some more shredded sounds came through the radio, and in addition to several voices, Jack was positive he heard staff weapon fire. But his attention was caught by Sam's coughing. He rushed to her side to see that she was coughing up blood.
"Jack…"
"Shh, don't talk-"
"No, you have to know this-" But Jack never discovered what 'this' was. Seconds after he had concealed the radio, three jaffa entered the cell. One shoved him backward with his staff while the other two grabbed Sam by the arms and half-lead half-dragged her out of the cell.
"Hey!" Jack yelled; he tried to go after her, but the jaffa activated his staff weapon and forced him back down. "Where are they taking her?" He asked, there was something about this jaffa that he trusted, almost as if he knew him.
"I wish to speak to the Tok'ra." The jaffa said. Jack dropped his head and Kanan's eyes glowed brightly.
"Where are they taking Major Carter?" he asked furiously.
"She is dying, the wounds visible to you are not her only injuries. We do not believe that Anubis is a god and will do our best to help you. Major Carter will die if we don't take her to a sarcophagus."
"And in the meantime?"
"Wait here, when we return with her, we will attempt to free the rest of you." The jaffa bowed his head and left without another word. Jack paced the cell back and forth waiting for Sam's return for several hours, constantly rubbing his forehead and ruffling his hair.
"Jack! Look out!" Daniel called. He turned around just in time to see the door of his cell blasting off its hinges. He dove out of the way and rolled back to his knees perfectly, suddenly glad again to have a symbiote. Jack stood up and held out his hands, ready to take whatever came through the door with a fight.
"Castleman? Jacob?" He said, dropping his fists. "I gave you express orders not to come up here!" The Major gave a small laugh and threw Jack his vest and gun.
"With all do respect sir, you're under an alien influence. We really couldn't be sure whether it was you or your Tok'ra symbiote talking so General Carter-"
"Ordered a rescue mission." Jack nearly laughed aloud at how well Jacob and Major Castleman had twisted the situation into an excuse.
"Where's Teal'c?"
"He's on the surface with Sg-3, sir, preparing to let us out through the gate." Jack nodded.
"What happened to your leg?" He asked, noticing how Jacob was limping.
"Broke it getting the bomb up here, but Selmak will fix it."
"Alright let's go then."
"Sir!" One of the lieutenants called from outside the cell. The two officers rushed to the door and Castleman cocked his weapon.
"Hold your fire! They're with us!" Jack yelled. He moved toward the jaffa, who had returned alone and was standing in the doorway. Their leader slowly lowered his weapon as an act of good faith, and the SG teams did the same.
"It seems you are no longer in need of rescuing." The jaffa said.
"Yeah, I guess not, where's Carter?"
"She is still recovering in the sarcophagus. We were coming to tell you…she died as we carried her, it will take much longer now to revive her." Jacob looked as though he was about to collapse.
"Jack?" He questioned weakly. Jack's heart had also skipped a beat. But he was able to shake it off more quickly.
"Castleman."
"Y-yes sir?"
"Take your team, Sg-9, Daniel, and General Carter out of here. No arguments Jacob, you're a burden with that limp." He turned back to the jaffa, "Will you take us to the sarcophagus?"
"Yes. Follow me." The leader turned on his heal and led Jack through a montage of twisting corridors, narrowly missing two jaffa patrols and having to dart backward at times to avoid others.
"Look out!" Jack yelled, pulling the jaffa out of the way of staff fire. The patrol moved toward them, weapons raised, and for a moment, Jack thought they'd had it. But more staff weapon fire could be heard from down the corridor and someone called out to them in Goa'uld.
"It is Neshod." The jaffa leader indicated. They stepped out from behind the wall and joined the jaffa that had come to their rescue.
"How long will this take?" Jack said, touching the top of the sarcophagus. The leader looked from Jack to his men.
"It may take an hour or more; too long if you wish to leave before your weapon is activated. And, my men and I cannot stay here, our treason has most likely been discovered, we must flee."
"Where will you go?" the leader shrugged. "Well I guess you're coming with us. My team is stationed behind the stargate; let them know I sent you."
"Thank you, we are eternally grateful."
"It's no problem. And tell them…tell them not to wait for us." The leader considered him for a moment, and gave him a jaffa salute before leaving him alone to wait.