Accompanied by Teal'c and Jack (the dog), Jack walked into the lab that Thor, Andrew and Shawn were working in only a few minutes after they'd all ended the briefing session. Shawn and Andrew both looked up at the entrance, but Thor was busy putting a wire into some complicated looking device and didn't acknowledge them right away.

"How's it going?" Jack asked.

"A lot faster than he expected it to," Shawn answered. "We're using a modified version of a naquida reactor to power the module, so all we have to do is put the thing together in a shielded casing and set-"

"How long, Shawn?"

Even from Shawn gobbledy-gook was still gobbledy-gook.

"A couple of hours."

Thor looked up, then.

"It would progress faster if I had better materials to work with. However, your materials are adequate – if not measurably rudimentary."

"Well… we do our best," Jack told him sardonically. "I don't suppose you can think of a way to drill through two miles of glacier ice in as little time as possible?"

Thor didn't blink, but it was obvious the question took him by surprise. He wasn't the only one.

"Why do you need to get through a glacier, Jack?" Andrew asked, curiously.

"Ian seems to think there's a weapon under the Antarctic ice that could prove to be just the thing to take care of the Goa'uld. Especially if the Asgard don't get Thor's message."

"They will get my message," Thor said.

"What kind of weapon?" Shawn asked.

"Ian's not wrong very often," Andrew said. "Is it a gun?"

"No idea. He only said that it was an Ancient weapon." Jack looked at Thor. "Any ideas?"

Thor shook his head.

"If I had my ship it would not be too difficult, most likely. However…"

"No way of modifying a laser or something?"

"It would take a larger laser than anything your people have, O'Neill," the Asgard told him. He was clearly thinking about the question, though, because a moment later he spoke up again before Jack could ask about the communications device. "Perhaps the Tok'ra would have a solution to that problem."

Jack sighed.

"Yeah, we'll have to ask them."

Which wasn't going to happen any time soon. Or rather, they could ask, but they couldn't really trust any answer Jacob gave them. Not until they knew for sure who they were really dealing with on the inside.

"Is there anything I can do, Jack?" Shawn offered.

"Nah. Just keep helping Thor – and let me know when you're ready. Okay?"

"We will, O'Neill."

Thor turned back to the doohickey he was building, and Jack and Teal'c left.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Emmett Bregman was in the infirmary. He had been since he received word about what had happened to Ben; hovering around, watching with unconcealed concern and anxiety. He didn't know a lot about the Goa'uld, really, but he knew enough to know that having one take you over as a host was bad – and Janet wasn't looking too optimistic whenever he asked her how things were going.

They had Ben (Emmett still thought of him as Ben – even with the Goa'uld inside of him) in a bed in an observation room, held down tightly with leather straps over his chest, hips and legs. Added to that, they had a leather strap buckled around his neck to hold him firmly against the bed. When Emmett had complained about it, Janet had told him that if some of the others had their way, Ben would be sedated and worse. The only reason he wasn't was because they thought they might need to question the symbiote inside him – although no one had come down to do it, yet.

His only visitor was Emmett, who wasn't allowed in the room and could only watch his young partner lay there stiffly, staring up at the ceiling with an expression of hatred that Emmett had never before seen on Ben's handsome – if bruised – face. It made him seem alien, and that was what made it painfully obvious to Bregman that there could be no mistake about what was going on.

An arm slid around his waist, and Emmett was pulled from his dark thoughts by the gentle touch. He turned and saw Janet had come up beside him. She looked as tired as he felt.

"How are you holding up?" she asked.

Emmett shrugged the question away.

"Is he in pain?"

She shook her head.

"The symbiote will take care of the bruises in no time."

"Why would it do that?"

"To keep its host healthy." She squeezed his waist. "We don't have any way of extracting a symbiote, but the Tok'ra do and the Asgard might. As long as we keep him out of trouble, he should be fine…"

"Ian wasn't hurt?"

"Not seriously. He's a tough kid."

Emmett sighed

"There's nothing we can do?"

She shook her head.

"I'm sorry."

"Stupid kid…" and now he was talking more to himself than her. "I told him to stay away from her…"

Janet didn't say anything. There wasn't anything she could say.

OOOOOOOOOO

When the door to his prison (it was really a guest VIP room, but with the guards on it Jacob Carter thought of it as prison) opened, the retired general was sitting on the bed staring at his hands. It didn't look like he was doing anything, but inwardly he was deep in conversation with his symbiote as the two of them tried to figure out how the Goa'uld had managed to infest the Tok'ra so thoroughly – and speculated on just how long Pia had been under the influence of a different host.

He looked up when Jack and Teal'c walked in – accompanied by Jack (the dog) who wagged his tail cheerfully as he ambled over to say hi. Jacob smiled; glad that someone at least believed he was himself, and rubbed Jack's ears in greeting, even though he was looking at Jack.

"Please tell me you found something?"

Jack shook his head.

"Nothing to clear you yet, Jacob. I'm sorry."

"Damn…"

"Ian's working on something, though…" Jack added. He definitely wasn't going to mention the weapon, however – although he did hope Jacob might have some way to solve his ice problem.

"How's Sam?"

"Worried. Like the rest of us."

"And the guy Pia's symbiote took over?"

"He's still in the infirmary until we get the snake out." Jack said. "Until then, however, we have a different problem we were wondering if you could help us with…"

Jacob looked at him in surprise.

"Something you trust me to do?"

Jack gave him a tight smile.

"You can't leave the room – but for this, you won't need to, really."

"What do you need?"

"We need to get through up to two miles of ice… any idea how we could do it?"

"Two miles?"

Jack nodded.

"Maybe not that much, but maybe that much…"

"Are you going to tell me why?"

"Not right now. Not until I'm positive of where your loyalties lay."

Jacob scowled, but Selmac could understand.

"How big a hole are we talking?"

Jack shrugged.

"At least big enough for people… preferably without turning them claustrophobic."

"Straight down?"

"I'm not sure."

"You're not much help, Jack," Jacob chided.

"I'm sorry, Jacob. I'd tell you more if I could."

Which was true.

The old general nodded, accepting that as the truth.

"Let us think about it. We might come up with something."

It would give them something to do, anyways.