They'd moved their command center from the infirmary back to the briefing room – although Jack had grabbed the tape from the infirmary camera and stuck it in his pocket as he left, since he was going to need it. The infirmary wasn't really the best place for some discussions, after all, and the patients needed their sleep.
About fifteen minutes after they'd settled in to wait – almost exactly half an hour after Jack had called home – the main gate called Hammond's office to tell the general that Shawn was being checked into the first security post.
"He's here," Hammond said, coming out of his office and addressing the group sitting around the table. Jack and Sam were on one side, Jack's face a study in barely suppressed fury, while Sam's expression mirrored her concern that Ian was gone in the first place. The only person at the table who looked angrier than O'Neill was Janet Fraiser, who was making absolutely no effort at all to hide the fact that she didn't appreciate the thought of having aliens – even allied aliens – snatching people out of her infirmary in the middle of the night.
The general briefly considered reminding everyone – Jack and Janet in particular – that the Asgard were allies and not to say something that might screw that up, but he didn't. For one thing, Jack wouldn't have listened, and for another, Hammond was just as angry and didn't want to be called a hypocrite later if he said something after telling the others not to.
The door opened a minute later and Shawn came into the briefing room, flanked by a Marine from the front gate who was carrying Jake's car seat, the baby still soundly sleeping. Shawn could have carried it no problem, but he also had to sign himself in at each checkpoint, and since they knew he was in a hurry, the Marine had made the offer to carry Jake – which was a big help.
"Sorry it took so long," Shawn said as he entered the room.
"You made good time," Jack replied, nodding a hello to the corporal who brought Jake over and set the car seat on the table in front of Sam.
"Thank you," Sam told him, giving him a smile as she pulled the blanket aside to make sure Jake wasn't awake and ready to start fussing. The Marine nodded and left the room, and Shawn pulled the signaling device out of his jeans pocket and handed it to Jack.
"What's going on?"
"It looks like Ian was snatched by the Asgard," Jack told him.
"What?"
"It's the only thing that makes sense," Sam said. "We're pretty sure there was a flash of light about the right time – and we can't find him anywhere on the base."
"Thor wouldn't take Ian," Shawn said. "There's no way."
"He'd better not have," Jack said, pressing the button. From the expression on his face, though, Shawn could tell he was pretty certain that that was what had happened.
OOOOOOOOOOO
"Shit! What happened?"
Warning alarms started blaring through the ship almost as soon as he pressed the button, and Ian startled so badly he almost peed himself. Of course, he really had to go by then, anyways, so it wasn't as surprising as it might have been.
"Fucking aliens…"
He jerked his hand back over the button that he'd pressed and hit the one next to it – one that looked like it might be an opposite button; like an off or on switch. If the little bastards had any of their controls labeled that'd certainly help matters, now wouldn't it?
Luckily, the alarm went off. Which might have simply meant that he'd hit the turn off the alarm switch and that whatever he'd done to set them off in the first place was still something he had to worry about.
He glanced over at Loki's unconscious form and scowled. Little bastard.
The chair in the middle of the bridge drew Ian's attention, then, and he walked over and looked at it. On the arm of the chair were a few buttons as well. And these were marked with Asgard script, although the words were abbreviated.
'Comm' was probably communications, which would be great if Ian had any idea who he was going to call. He was pretty cure the Asgard ship would pick up Earth's radio waves and such – even from wherever the hell he was – but he didn't want to just start calling indiscriminately and wind up talking to some trucker in Georgia. Not to mention, he wasn't certain if the ship was still moving in hyperdrive, because he was fairly certain that the communications wouldn't work while they were. The Ancients' ships didn't, after all, and the Ancients were smarter than the Asgard. Well, maybe.
The next set of buttons – panels, actually – were labeled 'systems', which meant – probably – life support and shit like that – or it might mean shields and weapons. Ian scowled again, and looked around, even though he knew he wasn't going to find an instruction manual.
There was only one way he was going to get the fucking ship back to Earth, that much was certain. He looked back over his shoulder at Loki once more.
OOOOOOOO
"How long do you think it'll take him to respond?" Janet asked after a few minutes of sitting in the room in silence.
Since she'd been looking at Shawn when she'd asked – which made sense since out of all of them, Shawn knew Thor best – he shrugged.
"It depends on where he is or what he's doing," the boy answered. "If he's close by, he'll probably-"
He was interrupted by a pair of low growls coming from under the table, and a moment later Jack vanished with a flash of brilliant light, leaving an empty chair behind.
"- be pretty quick…" Shawn finished, lamely.
Jaffer's low growl sounded again, and Sam reached down to calm the dog, knowing that that growl was more of a threat than a response to the Asgard technology. Jaffer didn't like his Jack going anywhere without him.
"Easy," Sam murmured. "He'll be right back."
They'd already discussed that while they'd been waiting for Shawn to arrive. If Thor responded and beamed Jack up to his ship, he was going to tell Thor to beam both of them back down to the briefing room where everyone would be able to know what was being said.
Sure enough, an instant later, Jack reappeared in his chair, and Thor appeared at the front of the room near Hammond's chair.
"Greetings, General Hammond," Thor said calmly. The little alien looked at the others, prepared to greet them as well, but Jack spoke up before he could.
"Okay. We want him back. Now."
Thor blinked.
"Who?"
"Ian. I don't know what you were thinking taking him," Jack said, clearly ready to really start shouting, "but I want him back, and I want him back now."
"You are referring to Ian Brooks?"
"Yes."
"I do not have him, Jack O'Neill."
