Disclaimer: I don't own the Dukes of Hazzard or Stargate SG-1. Not making any money, just cheap thrills.

Warnings: Angst, Language

Rating: FRT

Italics and/or indicates thoughts

Through The Looking Glass

Chapter 9

"Bo don't!" Daisy and Luke cried out simultaneously.

"Bo you don't want to do this," Jack began, trying to get through to the younger man.

"I have to, Maybourne isn't giving me any choice," Bo argued.

"And if you pull that trigger, Maybourne and Kinsey win," Cooter pointed out.

"Bo, you can't do this," Luke said, moving slowly forward.

"Why not?"

"Because you're a Duke and Duke's don't quit," Luke reminded his cousin.

"Well maybe we should," Bo snapped. "If we did, I wouldn't be in this mess."

"What do you mean Bo?" Luke asked.

"If I had given up, had quit fighting Ocasta there wouldn't have been anything of me left."

"So now, after all you've been through you're going to let a slimeball like Maybourne win?" Luke asked quietly.

Bo didn't say anything to that, he just smiled sadly at his cousins and slowly tightened his finger on the trigger. Suddenly somebody grabbed his hand and jerked it upward. Struggling against the unexpected hold, Bo fought to regain control of the gun.

"I cannot allow you to do this Bo Duke," Teal'c calmly stated as he wrested the gun from Bo's grip.

"No, please Teal'c let me end this nightmare," Bo plead, desperately trying to reach the gun held just out of range.

"I will not allow you to dishonor yourself," Teal'c told him, refusing to relinquish the gun.

"You don't have the right to decide for me!" Bo screamed at the large Jaffa.

"Well I'd say your new friend just proved he's a zatarc," Maybourne observed to Jack.

"How exactly do you figure that?" Jack asked.

"Surely your judgement isn't that clouded Jack, zatarc's kill themselves when their objective is thwarted," Maybourne reminded him.

"Damn it Harry, are you really willing to destroy that man just because you got your toes stepped on?" Jack demanded, moving forward into Maybourne's space.

Maybourne swallowed hard and backed away from the other Colonel, stopping only when his back came into contact with a wall. "Why don't you just admit it Jack, you were wrong to trust him?"

"Maybourne, Bo is no more a zatarc than I am," Jack snapped, drawing back his fist.

"Jack don't!" Cooter yelled at his new friend. "You hit him and he'll have you court-martialed," Cooter pointed out.

"Damn it! Fine, uh-uh, don't say a word Maybourne," Jack warned, shaking one finger at the other Colonel. "You know if I were you Harry, I'd find someplace else to be," Jack suggested, looking pointedly around the room.

Glancing around the room, Maybourne took in the looks of anger and disgust on the faces of Bo's family. What surprised him, were the looks of anger and disgust on the faces of his fellow soldiers, as those who had witnessed the encounter stared him down. Realizing that if he wanted to continue breathing, he'd be advised to do as Jack suggested, he quickly left the room.

"Bo, you okay?" Jack asked, stepping over to where the Duke family surrounded their youngest member. Jack gasped at the look of despair he saw in Bo's eyes when Bo finally looked at him. "Listen to me, we'll find a way to stop Maybourne," Jack assured him, laying a supportive hand on Bo's shoulder.

"It doesn't matter," Bo mumbled. "Even if you find a way to stop this, he'll just find some other way to torment me. The only thing I can't figure out is why?"

"That's kind of my fault," Jack admitted.

"How's that?"

"Maybourne's a jerk and he always has been. That was all it was at first, but then he got Kinsey to interfere with getting clearance for your cousins. I decided that it was time to beat them at their own game, so I got some dirt on Kinsey and forced him to back off. That's why Maybourne's making noise about you being a zatarc, and the way he's doing it I can't prove Kinsey is behind it," Jack explained.

"Then it's not really your fault Jack, you were just trying to help me out. No, the only one to blame is Maybourne and like you said, probably Kinsey. I'll just have to do what he wants and hope that it's enough," Bo told them, his voice thick with defeat.

Twenty-four hours later and the Tok'ra were stepping through the gate, bringing the necessary equipment with them. Jacob Carter led the Tok'ra delegation, stepping into the conference room, he immediately stepped over to Bo. "Hello Bo, I won't ask how you are, that's plain to see," Jacob/Selmac stated, noticing the dark circles under Bo's eyes. "I understand that certain parties would like you to submit to zatarc testing, are you prepared to do so?"

"As I'll ever be," Bo replied tiredly.

"I recognize Colonel Maybourne, but I don't believe I've ever met you three," Jacob/Selmak said, looking at the Dukes and Cooter.

"Jacob Carter/Selmak, these are Bo's cousins Luke and Daisy," Jack introduced. "And this is Cooter Davenport, he's a good friend of the Duke family, as well as a Senator from Georgia."

"It's good to meet all of you," Jacob/Selmak replied, holding out a hand and greeting each in turn. "Bo if you don't want to do this, you don't have to."

"Yeah I do, if I don't Maybourne will have me locked up for the rest of my life," Bo replied.

"Oh I know what Maybourne has threatened," Jacob/Selmak said. "However there is another choice open to you. The Tok'ra high council would like to extend you an invitation to relocate to any planet of your choosing."

"What? You can't do that," Maybourne protested. "This man has valuable information and we aren't going to simply allow him to walk through the stargate and disappear."

"Colonel may I remind you that Bo is also a citizen of the United States and as such he has certain rights. He has committed no crime, in fact he's the victim of the worst crime that can be committed against a sentient being. If he wants to relocate to another planet and the Tok'ra are willing to help him, it really isn't any of your business." Jacob/Selmak replied, enjoying the look of surprise on Maybourne's face.

"Thank you Jacob, but I don't want to leave my family behind. I'll submit to the zatarc testing, and hopefully that will be the end of it."

"It will be Bo," General Hammond said, stepping into the room and joining the meeting. "Jacob, good to see you. Bo, I've been trying to reach the President, without any luck so far. However, I have spoken to Maybourne's superiors and they have agreed to drop any objections they have; if it's proven that you're not a zatarc."

"Thank you General," Bo said, sincerely touched that these virtual strangers would go to so much trouble to help him. "Well Jacob, guess we might as well get this over with," Bo stated, turning towards the Tok'ra.

"Alright Bo, if you're sure?" Jacob/Selmak asked, giving him one last chance to change his mind. When Bo simply nodded his head in response, Jacob/Selmak turned towards General Hammond. "Do you have a room set up?"

"Yes, if you'll come this way," Hammond replied, leading the group to a medical isolation room. While Bo was taken into the main room and strapped into a chair, the others moved to the observation room.

Watching through the large window, Luke felt himself growing angrier as his cousin was strapped into a chair. After strapping the younger man in, the technicians in the room began to attach a series of wires to Bo's body. Some of those, he'd been told, would monitor Bo's heart rate and respiration, making sure that he wasn't in any physcial danger during the test. He winced in sympathy when Jacob attached a small circular device to Bo's temple, and he saw his cousin flinch with pain.

For the next several hours Luke watched in horrified fascination as his cousin relived a nightmare. At least Colonel O'Neill was able to convince them that Bo didn't need to go through fifteen years of memories. It had been decided that since the program would probably have been set within the last year, they would confine the search of Bo's memories to that short time frame. Not that it matters to Bo much. Looks to me like, even a year's worth of memories is worse than anything I could ever imagine. Luke thought to himself as he watched his cousin being led through a series of terrible memories.

Luke had tried not to look at the monitor which displayed Bo's memories in living color, but it was impossible. He wanted to be sick at the sight of his youngest cousin, murdering and raping men, women and children. How could Bo have lived through fifteen years of this? Luke wondered to himself. It had only been a few hours since the zatarc testing had begun and Luke wanted to go find a corner to hide in. If watching this was so hard, how much worse must it have been to live it? The only thing that was keeping Luke from leaving the room was the knowledge that his cousin hadn't been able to leave then or now. So he would stay, giving his cousin whatever support he could, though he wished now he'd stayed in his quarters as Daisy was.

Suddenly the room below filled with light. When the light dimmed, there in the center of the room stood a small grey alien. He looked just like those drawings of aliens that were always being shown in the tabloids. Luke leaned forward as Jack O'Neill greeted the alien.

"Thor old buddy, what are you doing here?" Jack greeted the leader of the Asgard fleet warmly.

"O'Neill, I am here to prevent an injustice from being carried out," Thor replied dispassionately. Turning towards Maybourne, Thor greeted him in the same dispassionate voice. "Colonel Maybourne, at the request of the Tok'ra high council I have come here to determine the validity of your assertion concerning this man. The Tok'ra are aware that the Asgard have developed a means of determining whether or not an individual is in fact a zartarc. Our method however does not involve what amounts to torture of the victim." Thor turned away from Maybourne and approached Bo, who sat shaking in his seat as he was assaulted by the memories of Ocasta. Stepping up beside the chair, Thor lay a thin hand on Bo's forearm, "With your permission Bo Duke I would like to determine if you are a zartarc?"

"How?" Bo asked nervously, not sure what the Asgard had in mind.

"A simple scan with this," Thor replied, holding up a small device in the palm of his hand. "There will be no pain and you will not be forced to relive memories of the Gou'ld," he explained.

"Not acceptable," Maybourne barked. "How do we know that thing even does what you say it does?"

"That's it Harry, antagonize one of our best allies, why don't you just insult his mother?" Jack asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Colonel Maybourne, that will be quite enough," General Hammond snapped at the younger man. "Thor, if it's alright with Bo, your proposal would be acceptable to us."

"Thank you General Hammond. Would you be willing?" Thor asked Bo, turning to him once again.

"Yeah sure, anything if it'll keep me from having to use the Tok'ra device, no offense Jacob," Bo replied.

"None taken and I don't blame you a bit," Jacob/Selmak answered.

Thor moved back to the chair and holding the device over Bo's head began the scan. Several minutes later, he removed the device and examined the results. Turning towards General Hammond, he told them the results, "My scan shows that this man is not and never has been a zatarc." Thor stated, confirming what they had all decided was probably the case.

"Colonel Maybourne, I believe that you are no longer needed here. You have fifteen minutes to leave my base, or I'll have security escort you out," Hammond ordered. Sometimes it was good to be the General, he couldn't help thinking as Maybourne hurried to obey. "Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c why don't you help Bo get free of those wires," the General suggested. "When you're all done here, I'd like to meet in the conference room, I believe we have a cover story to concoct."

Ten minutes later, after collecting Daisy from her quarters, they all met up in the conference room. As soon as everybody was assembled, General Hammond introduced those who hadn't met yet. "Luke and Daisy Duke, this is Dr. Daniel Jackson and Captain Samantha Carter, they make up the remainder of SG-1. I believe everybody else is acquainted," the General said. "Alright then," he began after receiving a series of nods, "Let's get down to business. Now the Pentagon wanted to explain Bo's disappearance by saying he'd been in a coma for the past fifteen years. I believe you said that wouldn't work Senator, have you come up with anything else?"

"Well I've been thinking about it, and I think we should use the coma story, but with some changes. You see I realized that y'all are probably going to need to retrieve the stargate from inside those caves, right?"

"Yes," Hammond replied.

"Do you want anybody to know that the military is in that area?"

"Not particularly."

"Well then, I think Bo and I have figured it out. See we can't say he had amnesia or was in the witness protection program, too many little things to trip him up. Now a coma though, that would explain why he's not familiar with things like the internet. The problem is, most of Hazzard spent two days looking for Bo, if he'd been anywhere near them caves they'd have known it. So we can't say that somebody found him and got him to a hospital, that'll never wash."

"You're right about that Cooter, but what kind of story are you gonna tell them then?" Luke asked, from his seat next to Bo.

"I'm glad you asked that Lukas Dukas," Cooter replied with a smile. "We're gonna say that when Bo went into that cave there were a couple of fellas in there. Now these fellas were dumping toxic waste and Bo caught 'em. So naturally they took Bo with them, planning to take him back to their boss for him to decide what to do with him. One of them took Bo to their car and the other one got rid of their tracks, that explains why Luke only saw Bo's tracks that day. On their way to the boss man, they had a terrible accident in Sweetwater county. Bo was thrown from the car, which exploded killing the two men and destroying Bo's i.d. which they had taken from him. Bo here was knocked out and slipped into a coma, which he only woke up from a few weeks ago. He's been in therapy since then, building his muscle strength and stamina back up."

"Well that'd work to explain why Bo disappeared for fifteen years," Luke agreed.

"How's it going to help us get into the caves without raising suspicions though?" Daniel asked, pushing his glasses further up his nose as he spoke.

"Simple Dr. Jackson," Cooter began to explain. "They were dumping toxic waste, now even with it buried under a pile of rock, we still need to get it out of there and clean it up properly. Y'all are gonna be from the EPA, which will explain why you'd go to the expense of digging out all that rubble. It also has the added bonus of keeping everybody away from the site, since they won't want to be exposed to toxic waste," Cooter explained.

"Yeah, and this way Rosco won't be interested in trying to exploit anything. He'll be too busy worrying about that toxic waste to think about anything else," Bo explained with a smile.

"I don't know, seems awfully complicated to me," Daniel protested, voicing his doubts.

"It is complicated Dr. Jackson, and anywhere else on the planet it probably wouldn't work. The thing is this is Hazzard county, and it ain't like any place else on Earth," Cooter exlained.

"Cooter's right, the story him and Bo came up with should work," Luke confirmed.

"Alright, I'll run it by the Pentagon and once we have the cover story approved, we'll head to Hazzard," General Hammond said, ending the meeting.

TBC

I know this isn't my best chapter, but Maybourne is just always making things difficult. Please let me know what you think, leave reviews.