A/N: A couple housecleaning things. First thing: Where I Belong; I know there are a number of people who were following this and are dissapointed that I left it where I did. The good news is I've been working on this story again and will hopefully finish it. The main problem I've been having is that this story is an emotion driven story; not just the characters but mine as well; what I was feeling at the time was a large part of the idea for the story. I'm trying to recapture that to remain true to the story; I hope you won't be displeased.

AN 2: The O-5/O-6 mixup. Thanks to those who pointed this out; as soon as I posted Chapter 1 I smacked myself upside the head and fixed it. Chapter 1 has been reposted with Jack properly referring to Harm's rank as O-5, not O-6. Don't worry though, I've got plans that will see Harm get up to O-6.

Chapter 3

Harm glanced around the arrivals terminal at the Colorado Springs airport wondering exactly who he should be looking for. Jack had left a note inside the ticket envelope saying if he showed up that he would be met at the terminal by someone from the base. It stood to reason that he should look for a sergeant or corporal; someone who usually got stuck chauffeuring people around. What he didn't expect was to see Sam Carter waiting patiently just inside the terminal out of uniform.

"Commander," Sam greeted Harm with a smile as he strode over to where she waited.

"Colonel," Harm smiled slightly in return. "Now that we've gotten that out of the way, the name's Harm."

"Sam," Sam's smiled brightened a little at Harm's desire for a more relaxed environment. Jack was right; this guy would probably fit right in at the SGC. She'd taken a look at the file Jack had gotten from the Pentagon on the Navy Commander; impressive didn't even start to cover it. Going from being a Navy Pilot to a JAG lawyer and then doing it all over again might seem idiotic to some, but the fact that this guy had not only done it, but his career thrived while he did it proved that he had guts.

"Wasn't expecting an O-5 to be my driver," Harm said as he picked up his single bag. "Have to say, I'm impressed." Harm couldn't help but notice Sam's smile and how attractive she was. Too bad his heart belonged to...no, that was in the past. He wouldn't go there again if he could.

"Well, General O'Neill thought it would be best if either Daniel or I picked you up, that way we could answer any initial questions you might have. Besides, I was volunteered. Apparently I've been spending too much time in the lab again."

"Lab?" Harm asked with some confusion.

"I'm the head of R&D at the base; I'm an astrophysicist by training. Daniel's the head of our Archaeology and Linguistics department."

"R&D? Archaeology and Linguistics? Just what kind of deep space radar telemetry do you do there?"

"Well we do have a deep space radar setup, but that's not all we do. Honestly Harm, you're going to be blown away. There's a lot more out there than you've ever dreamed of," Sam said as they arrived at the dark sedan parked outside the terminal. Tossing his bag into the back seat Harm just nodded and got into the passenger side seat.

"Okay, a little history on the way out to the Mountain. As Danny stated, there was an archaeological expedition in the forties that uncovered something amazing; a giant stone ring that had been overlain by cover stones. No one was able to decipher the cover stones completely, and no one had any idea what the ring was for; or so we thought. It turns out that the American government obtained the ring and began to conduct experiments with it, trying to find out what it does. They managed to activate the ring by accident and sent a man through, but when it shut down he was trapped on the other side. We managed to find him and bring him back a few years ago when Danny found tapes of the original experiment and found out that they'd left a man stranded."

As Sam paused for a breath Harm closed his eyes and tried to absorb what she was saying.

When Harm didn't comment on her explanation she continued "Anyway, after that they shut down the project, said the man was lost in a tragic explosion and forgot about the stone ring. Until Daniel came on the scene with his theories that the Egyptian culture was a lot older than anyone had previously though; he even had a theory that the pyramids were actually landing pads for space ships. He was laughed out of academia."

"Landing pads for ships? I'm not surprised he was laughed out."

"He was right."

"What?" Harm asked in shock. He looked at Sam to see if he could see if she was playing a joke at his expense, but her expression was dead serious.

"He was right; they were landing pads. For giant ships we call Motherships. They were used by a race called the Go'auld. The General started calling them Gould as a sign of his contempt and it caught on; most of us at the base simply call them Gould. They're a race of parasitic beings that take another being host and use the body as a sort of transportation device."

"Transportation device?"

"To the Gould we're nothing more than a glorified vehicle. And they live for a very long time, hundreds and thousands of years. Most of them took the mantle of gods from different Earth cultures; to them Earth was nothing more than a breeding ground for hosts and slave labour. Over the years they abducted thousands of humans from Earth and transplanted them to other worlds. It's really amazing how many cultures there are out there that first originated on Earth."

"Hold on a second Sam. I'm going to need a minute to digest this," Harm held up his hand to pause Sam's narrative.

"That's alright; we're almost there. The General wants to see you in the briefing room right away anyway. Danny and I will be there to answer any questions you may have. You'll also meet Teal'c, the third member of my team."

"Air Force?"

"Not…exactly. Teal'c was the First Prime to a Gould named Apophis. He rebelled against the slavery of the Jaffa by the Goulds."

"And who are the Jaffa? Another alien race?"

"Exactly. Teal'c's people are a warrior race very much like humans, however they have a larval Gould implanted in their stomachs at the age of majority. This larval Gould provides the Jaffa with enhanced strength, stamina, a superior immune system and even some small regenerative properties. Kind of a deal with the devil sort of thing; if we're walking vehicles, the Jaffa are walking incubator tanks as the General has called them."

Taking a deep breath Harm glanced out the window at the rapidly approaching mountain. What had he gotten himself into?