"Ha'tak?" Nate repeated, confused. He was still watching as the large ship vanished to the west of them. He could hear the emergency bell going off on the fishing ship to the north of their position, and when he looked he could see the tell tale sign of a change of course for them. They had obviously seen the space ship as well, and were turning for home.

"Goa'uld pyramid ship," Jack explained.

"Goa'uld?" Nate asked. "Like Teal'c?"

"Not Teal'c," Ian said, already turning their boat around as well. "He's a Jaffa. The Goa'uld are the ones pretending to be their gods."

"I can't get through," Sam said, closing her cell phone on frustration. "All the circuits are busy."

"The thing just flew over the most populated part of the eastern seaboard, Sam," Nathan said. "In the middle of the day time…"

Of course the circuits were going to be busy. Things were probably only going to get worse, too.

"There's going to be mass panic…" Jack said, obviously thinking the same thing. "We need to get back."

What a time for them to be away from the SGC and out of the loop.

"We'll try the maritime radio…" Nate told her, moving to stand by Ian and reaching for the switch that turned on the high-powered radio. Immediately they were assaulted by a dozen panicked voices all trying to be heard at the same time and overlaying each other, making it a garbled mess.

"…the thing has to be the size of a warehouse!"

"…seen anything like it in my life!"

"…aliens, for sure!"

"…need to call out the Marines!"

"Ian!" Jack snapped. "Get us back to shore."

"I'm working on it, Jack."

It was a sailboat for Christ's sake, not a speedboat. Once the boat was turned, though, Ian applied full power to the throttles, and the diesel engines roared in response, churning an impressive wake behind them as they headed for shore.

Jack picked up his cell phone and tried to dial the SGC himself, but he didn't have any better luck than Sam had, receiving a recorded message telling him all the circuits were busy.

"Damn it."

"You think they're invading or something?" Nathan asked.

"I don't know, Nate," Jack admitted, looking the direction that the ship had vanished. "God, I hope not."

"Not with the Asgard enforcing the protected planets treaty," Sam said.

"The Asgard are probably off playing with their clones," Ian told them, scowling.

"Shawn's in Colorado," Jack said. "He can call them once he hears about-"

"Or Andrew can," Sam added.

Nate frowned.

"These guys know about the SGC?"

Sam nodded.

"They know we have a Stargate, I'm sure. I doubt they know where it is, though."

"But they probably have scanners to find it…"

"Not if the shield is up," Ian said, listening in as he steered clear of a smaller sailing boat that was just as obviously heading back to shore. The water was filled with ships all heading back towards land, now, and he had to watch where he was going to make sure there weren't any collisions.

"Hammond would have put the shield up as soon as NORAD informed him the Ha'tak was coming," Jack said, confidently – hoping he was right.

"Probably at the same time he told them to page us," Sam agreed.

"Think they're on their way to Washington, then?" Nate asked.

Jack shrugged helplessly.

"I don't have a clue, Nate."

OOOOOOOOO

At the SGC, alarms were blaring and the mood was tense.

"Any word from the O'Neill's?" General Hammond asked, stalking into the command center.

Harriman shook his head, his eyes glued to the screens in front of him. One was a computer screen with a NORAD feed showing the Ha'tak on radar, the other was a television screen that was tuned in to one of the cable new networks. On the screen, in plain sight, was the Ha'tak, flying over the head of the cameraman, who was cursing so badly that the audio feed had been cut off from the network rather than continually trying to censor it.

"No, sir. But if they're out on the water, they're going to be trying to rely on cell phones and radios, and it's a mess right now for both. Nothing's getting through."

"Any transmissions from the Ha'tak?"

"Not yet."

"Have we heard anything from the Asgard?"

"No, sir."

Hammond sighed, looking at the TV feed and shaking his head. This was the craziest thing, ever, and he really was surprised that they'd never run any drills in the event of it happening. Now he was cut off from Sam and Jack – and Ian, of course – and he'd been on the phone with the President, who wanted to know what the hell was going on – something that Hammond couldn't answer. To top it all off, he couldn't get hold of Shawn Adams or Andrew Stephens, who were the only people besides Jack that could call the Asgard to see if they had any idea what was going on.

"Let's-"

A completely different alarm blared, and Hammond looked up just in time to see the gate start to dial in.

"Incoming wormhole!" the Sergeant shouted unnecessarily.

Daniel and Teal'c – with Jack (the dog) trailing beside Teal'c – appeared in the command center just then.

"Who is it?" Hammond asked, concerned. A Ha'tak was bad enough, but there was always the chance that it was a diversionary tactic to throw the SGC off balance and get someone through their Stargate.

"No IDC yet, sir," the sergeant answered, studying his screen.

"Keep the iris up until we-"

"It's the Tok'ra," he interrupted as the information flashed over his computer terminal.

"Lower the iris," Hammond said. He reached for his microphone, though. "Security teams to the embarkation room."

There was already one team there, but on the off chance that the Tok'ra had somehow been infiltrated by the Goa'uld – and they already had seen it happen once – he wanted more than one team covering the gate room.

Teal'c headed out of the room and for the steps leading towards the gate room as well. The big Jaffa was a match for anyone, and with Jack beside him, the two made a fairly impressive fighting team in close quarters.

This was something they drilled, constantly. And it showed in the reaction times. Armed and armored teams swarmed the room around him, the big guns were manned in a hurry, and by the time the last chevron was locked and the event horizon swooshed open, there were almost thirty men and women waiting to greet whoever was coming through.

Guns came up and breaths were held. And Jacob Carter emerged from the Stargate, looking almost as tense as those who were watching him.