Jacob Carter took in the amount of firepower he was facing and the serious expressions on the faces of the people holding those weapons, and frowned.

"Stand down, teams."

Hammond's voice came over the intercom and the men relaxed, but only marginally. Jacob looked at Teal'c as he walked down the ramp.

"Is there something going on I should know about?"

"Indeed."

The big Jaffa didn't explain, though. He just turned as Hammond made his appearance in the gate room.

"Jacob! It's good to see you."

Jacob shook his friend's hand.

"You, too, George. What's going on?"

"You mean you don't know?"

Jacob frowned.

"Know what?"

"Come with me."

The general led the way out of the room, and headed for the briefing room, with Jacob, Daniel and Teal'c following.

OOOOOOOO

"Oh my God…"

The four of them were seated at the briefing table, and Jacob had just finished watching a video of the original breaking news story that had gone out over one of the cable networks – complete with live video feed of people staring up into the sky at the Goa'uld ship.

"NORAD picked it up first, but by the time we even knew where it was heading, there were already reports of sighting," Hammond said. "As far as we can tell, it first appeared over the Atlantic and headed west, flying over the states before heading out over the Pacific, where it then flew over Japan, on its way to Europe – where they managed to get very clear videos of it as well before it vanished. Presumably heading back to wherever it came."

"Presumably?" Jacob repeated.

"We lost it on our radars."

"What about the Asgard?"

"We haven't heard from them."

"So call them and find out why they're suddenly allowing-"

"We can't get hold of them," Hammond interrupted, allowing his frustration to show quite plainly. "Jack and Sam went with Ian to visit his father on the east coast and we haven't heard from them yet. If they're out on the water – which they had planned to be – then they're probably limited to cell phones or the radio, and those mediums are jamming up with panicked callers, as you can probably imagine."

"Don't you have a couple of those signaling devices?" Jacob asked, well awar eof what kind of panic this kind of sighting might bring out in people. "I thought Jack's boy and that other kid have complete access to the Asgard…"

"Shawn went with Andrew Stephens to his family reunion up at their lodge in the mountains – which is why he isn't with Sam and Jack. We've tried calling there, but there's no answer. I ordered some people up to get them, but they haven't arrived yet. I was hoping you were coming with news for us about this…"

Jacob shook his head.

"I was bringing you some new information about this Anubis, and had hoped you'd be able to shed some light on things for us – especially given Ian's access to the memories of the Ancients."

"What kind of information?" Daniel asked.

Jacob looked over at him – after glancing at the video screen once more.

"Anubis isn't a run of the mill want to be system lord," he said. "As near as our operatives can figure, he has hold of some very serious technology – and he's not exactly a Goa'uld. At least he doesn't appear to be."

"What?"

Jacob shrugged, helplessly.

"Does the word ascension mean anything to any of you?"

"Ascension?" Daniel repeated, frowning. "In what context?"

"No clue," the Tok'ra admitted. "But it's a buzzline with Anubis, and we can't figure out what it meant. I had hoped you'd know…"

Daniel shook his head.

"I'll do some research on it…"

Just because he couldn't think of anything off the top of his head, didn't mean it wasn't something he could find. He had the whole web at his disposal, after all.

"You do that," Hammond ordered. He looked at Jacob. "Are you sticking around?"

Jacob hesitated, looking at the screen that was replaying once more the Ha'tak flying over the statue of liberty. He was visibly torn between his loyalty to his country – and the knowledge that he should be here in case anything happened – and the fact that he could probably do more good elsewhere.

"I'll stick around until you hear from Sam."

Then he'd go see what he could do from the outside looking in. The Tok'ra could help – at least with intel.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

The marina was packed with all sizes of leisure boats trying to dock at the same, but Ian showed that he was up to the challenge when he managed to bring the sailboat in safely without running anyone over. As Nate jumped across to the dock to tie them down, he could easily see the clusters of people all chattering about the alien ship that they'd all seen, but he didn't spare them much time.

Sam and Jack joined him, and a moment later, Jaffer and Ian both jumped over as well.

"Look at this…" a woman to the right of them said to one of her friends who was clustered around the small portable TV she had on a small table on the dock.

Despite their urgency to be on the move, the four looked over at the TV, and saw a harried looking newscaster sitting at a desk. Behind him was a clear picture of the Ha'tak over the statue of liberty and another picture of an airplane.

"…repeat, in an historical and completely unprecedented move, the FAA has joined in with airlines and governments all over the world in the effort to suspend all air travel during this trying time. Since no one is certain what targets – if any – these visitors will be searching for, they say the safest move for all peoples of the Earth right now is to keep them out of the sky and on the ground where-"

"Sonofabitch…" Nate said, softly. "All air travel?"

"They won't suspend military flights," Jack said. "The FAA doesn't have-"

"Maggie's in Europe, Jack," Nathan interrupted. "If they've suspended air travel, she-"

"Get hold of her and put her on a military flight, dad," Ian said, just as concerned. "You have the clout, right?"

He looked over at Ian, surprised.

"Yeah."

Why hadn't he thought of it?

"Speaking of military flights," Jack said, moving away from the gaggle of older women. "We need to find a flight, too. Let's get to Hanscom."

Which was the closest Air Force base to where they were. They needed to get home.