Glad you're enjoying this. It will get better, probably sappy too, because it's Christmas after all and that's my excuse! Thanks for all the reviews guys!
Happy Holidays everyone!
A CHRISTMAS NIGHTMARE.
By Lingren.
Previously:-
Sam melted under the adoring gaze and admitted that okay, perhaps she was biased. Just a smidgen though.
Chapter 4 – A Shock to the System
Landry and the whole of the control room staff were glowing with pleasant warmth at the reunion going on down in the gate-room below. Landry was glad that they had managed to track down Mike, and just in time for Christmas too. Jack was obviously delighted to see his brother again, despite the flippant tone of the banter between them.
The two brothers stood, arms round each other, chatting nineteen to the dozen; they had so much to catch up on.
Sam, Daniel and Teal'c looked on indulgently but now kept their distance allowing them some privacy, while Mitchell just looked bewildered, and slightly confused. This Tok'ra guy looked almost like the General only a much younger version, but that was just plain stupid; he was a Tok'ra and everyone knew of the General's dislike of the aliens.
Daniel leaned into him, deciding to put him out of his misery by whispering the real relationship in Cameron's ear.
"Don't worry, they're brothers Cam. Mike O'Neill became a Tok'ra years ago. Jack hasn't seen him for over well over a couple of years now I guess. We managed to track him down and he agreed to come visit when we told him Jack was coming here today."
The scheduled gate activation caughtthe groupoff guard, Jack and Mike moved to the back of the room, assured that it was only a returning team. Sam, Daniel and Teal'c moved to join them while Mitchell stayed where he was, watching the event horizon burst into action. He never tired of seeing that happen.
The iris swirled into position and several guards had taken up their positions of defence just in case of any problems.
Jack was about to grab Mike and take him up to the briefing room when Walter announced that it was only SG-9 returning, so they stopped where they were, oblivious of the comings and goings.
The iris peeled back again.
Three figures looking worn out and bedraggled stepped through to the SGC. The lead figure, Major Jefferson, SG-9's commanding officer, was carrying the lifeless remains of his young Lieutenant, his limp body heavy, with arms and legs dangling loose as the Major stood perfectly still for a moment to gain his balance after the wild ride home.
Behind him his other team members were suffering too. They were leaning on each other for support.
A medical team burst through the door following Dr. Lam. She approached the Major with her team behind her ready to take the young man from him.
The Major shook his head and pushed past her, laying the lax form onto the gurney instead.
Dr. Lam knew a dead person when she saw one and knew there was nothing she could do for the young man. Gently he placed her hand on Jefferson's arm feeling for his loss.
"I'm sorry Major, there's nothing more we can do for him. He's gone," she sighed softly, quietly telling him that it was too late.
"No!" he snapped back at her, his eyes almost black with anger. "You have to do something for him!" he demanded.
"I'm sorry Major, but..." her words trailed off when the man grabbed her by the arm, squeezing it tight. She winced and whimpered a little. "Let go of me Major. You're hurting me," she cried.
Jefferson squeezed harder, forcing her towards him, making eye contact with her. Carolyn Lam was afraid, for the first time since taking this job, she was terrified by what was happening.
Landry watched in growing concern as his daughter was manhandled.
"Major Jefferson? Stand down!" he called through the mike.
Jack, who had also been keeping half an eye on the proceedings, apologised to Mike for the interruption, stepped in at this point, waving the security teams out of his way. He liked Jefferson; he'd trained him to take over SG-9. It was obvious that the man was suffering from PTSD and needed some gentle handling.
As gently and as calmly as he could, he approached Jefferson.
"Easy Matt!" he said softly, using the Major's given name, trying to reach the man inside. He stretched out his hand to lay it on the Major's shoulder. "Let the Doc go Matt. It's too late for Lieutenant Shapiro."
"No!" he screamed in denial, whirling round as quick as lightning. Shapiro can't be dead; he just couldn't be.
Several things happened at once then, and so quickly that it left everyone deeply shocked and barely daring to move for fear of causing more grief.
Matt Jefferson had drawn his 9mm weapon and fired several shots. He had managed to grab Carolyn and spin her round so that she had her back against his chest and his arm round her neck, pressing against her throat, threatening to cut off her airway, whilst holding her hostage. At the same time however, his team-mates had miraculously recovered from their injuries and had opened fire on the guards and anyone else who had moved to interfere.
Bullets ricocheted round the room, hitting victims indiscriminately, and blue arcs of Zat fire took down several people too.
Within minutes of SG-9's return there was absolute chaos in the gate-room. General Landry ordered the blast doors to be shut immediately.
Sam, Daniel and Mitchell had all, fortunately for them, only been taken down with Zats, Teal'c was standing by barely able to contain himself, a bullet wound to his arm, but he was holding his hands up so they wouldn't shoot any more; the uninjured following his example. Several guards were rendered unconscious, and some were wounded, lying on the floor covered in blood and moaning in pain.
Mike lay on the floor too, bleeding from a bullet wound to his chest; being a Tok'ra Major Jefferson had taken him out almost straight away. He fallen in such a way, that he couldn't tell what was happening in the room because he had his back to the ramp, so therefore didn't know the worst of it.
The shocked faces behind the bullet proof glass up in the control room could barely comprehend what had happened in the space of just a few seconds.
What had shocked everyone in the control more than anything was the unnaturally still form of General O'Neill as he lay sprawled on the floor covered in his own blood, at Jefferson's feet.
Shot at point blank range with three bullets, little hope remained that he was still among the living.
Major Jefferson stared wildly round the room, daring anyone to move. He pushed Dr. Lam hard into the gurney, holding her over the body of his youngest team-mate by the scruff of her neck, demanding that she look at the young Lieutenant again.
Carolyn didn't know how she was still standing; her knees were weak and shaking so much she doubted they'd hold her up much longer. She glanced down at the General's inert form until Jefferson growled at her. She switched her attention back to the young man lying on the gurney. Making a show at examining the young man, she could still only pronounced him dead through a haze of threatening tears.
She looked up and caught the desperately worried eyes of her father, General Landry, who was watching her and hoping that she would be okay. She may not be on the best of terms with him, but she was still his daughter, and he had been trying to patch things up between them. She vowed that if she ever got out of this alive, then she would actively seek that reconciliation with him. Life was too short and too precious to go around dwelling on what had been.
The Major was angry, livid in fact and continued to deny the obvious truth about his team-mate.
His eyes glowed with deep anger.
The realisation that the Major was now a Goa'uld stunned everyone rigid.
The result of which was that no-one dared move for fear of ending up the Goa'uld's next victim, though silent messages passed between some of them as sketchy plans were hastily made and rejected. This wasn't going to be an easy situation to get out of.
Hank Landry shook himself free from the stunning display below and gathered his wits about him once more. Once again he was amazed at the terrifying speed at which things could deteriorate and go to hell in a hand-basket. He leaned over the microphone, talking to those trapped with the enemy beyond the window. He mourned the loss of his team to such circumstances, but the people being held down there were his main concern now. He had to get them out and get the wounded into the infirmary.
"Major Jefferson, SG-9 stand down. That's an order!" He knew what he was asking was a lost cause, but he tried anyway. Major Jefferson and his team had been compromised; the three men that were present in the gate-room were no longer those that they had known.
The only reply Jefferson gave to that was to shoot at the General who flinched from the effect as the bullet bounced harmlessly off the glass.
"Shit!" Landry exclaimed with feeling, and Walter couldn't agree more.
TBC