Author's note: quick clarification, here. Ian turned off the personal cloak, but he still has the shielding device activated (as you'll see). And I'll also go into the reason why he didn't just blow the ZPM and run, too. Thanks for the reviews, and the questions!
OOOOOOOOOO
Despite his appearing nonchalance, Ian couldn't help the way his stomach tightened when he ran into the first Jaffa patrol. Luckily, they were shocked to see him – a lone human just strolling up the corridor in plain sight without a weapon in his hand – and that gave him enough time to get over that gut clenching fear before they reacted.
It didn't take long. There were two of them, and almost immediately two staff weapons came up to point at him.
"Halt!"
Since he'd stopped when he'd seen them, it was a bit redundant, but he knew they couldn't help that. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and raised them, slightly, to show them he wasn't holding a weapon, and one of the Jaffa moved over and pulled the zat and Glock from his holsters.
"Foolish boy," the other one gloated. "You should have fired when you had the chance. You will not be given a second opportunity."
"Our Master is-"
The other one never had a chance to finish his sentence. Ian triggered the device in his right hand. Instantly, both of the Jaffa were engulfed in a force field which held them immobile. They had barely had time to register this fact, however, before Ian activated the second, and far deadlier element of the device. The cells of both Jaffa suddenly began to vibrate, rubbing against each other until each cell membrane was destroyed and the cells themselves were broken down. It happened everywhere, instantaneously, and the Jaffa were dead before they even knew something was wrong, their bodies held together only by their skin and armor.
Ian felt more than a little sick as he released the device and the Jaffa dropped bonelessly to the floor. It was a fearsome weapon, which made him wonder how any race that was supposed to be as peaceful as the Ancients could ever have thought up something like it. Of course, he thought as he reached down and retrieved his Glock and zat from the lifeless hands of the Jaffa that had taken them, the Ancients hadn't always been peaceful, and it probably took a fair amount of technology – and ruthlessness – to carve out the kind of empire they'd once had. Time enough to be peaceful when you could destroy everyone around you, after all.
He slid his weapons back into his holsters, and continued toward the bridge of the ship, knowing full well that the next time he was caught was going to be the last. He needed to get to Anubis, and the Jaffa were the quickest way to get there, really. If not for the fact that he'd needed to see for himself just how well the Ancient weapon worked, he would have allowed those two Jaffa to take him.
OOOOOOOOOO
"So what do I do, Daniel?"
"You sit in the chair…"
Jack frowned.
"And then what?"
Daniel looked at the writings around the chair device, and shrugged.
"It doesn't have a manual, Jack. At least, it doesn't have one here. It just says the chair is the key to the power. So sit in it and see what happens…"
"That's not very helpful, Daniel…"
"Just do it."
Jack sighed, and walked over to the chair, gingerly sitting down in it as if he expected to get zapped any moment. From Sam's expression, she expected it as well. When nothing happened, they both looked at Daniel again.
"We have to hook up the power source…" he reminded them, pointing to the ZPM Sam was holding.
Sam felt like an idiot. She'd been so worried about something happening to Jack when he sat in the chair, she'd forgotten about that part of things. She looked around, wondering where the ZPM went, but couldn't see any obvious opening for it.
"Here, Sam," Daniel said, still reading the Ancient script around the chair and the surrounding area. He pointed to an odd circle on the floor, and pressed a button. With a soft hiss, the circle rose up out of the floor, making the top of what was evidently the holder for the ZPM. At least it was the same shape.
"Should I get up first?" Jack asked, watching them.
"I don't think so," Sam told him. "I can't imagine they'd have this thing designed to hurt the person sitting in it."
"What about those standing around?" he asked, concerned.
She smiled.
"It'll be okay."
With that assurance, she settled the ZPM into the holder, and it clicked firmly into position – which told her that it was the right spot for it at any rate. Then the whole thing sunk back into the floor, and the lights in the entire cavern suddenly came to life.
"Wow…"
If it had looked impressive by the light of their flashlights, it was far more awesome, now.
"No time to sightsee, Daniel," Jack said – although he was just as impressed. "What do I do, now?"
"Just concentrate, Jack," Daniel replied, still looking around. "Ian said the chair would know what to do."
"Concentrate…"
Jack would have rolled his eyes at that, but he was actually too busy trying to sort out what was going on inside him. He suddenly felt as if there was a large buildup of static electricity or something around him. The hairs on the back of his neck and his arms came up, and there was a slight buzzing in his ears. How was he supposed to concentrate with all that going on?
"Think about the ships above us…" Sam suggested.
Jack did just that, thinking about the death gliders that were swarming the area, and suddenly the chair reacted. The whole thing tilted back a bit, startling Sam and Daniel – but not Jack – and there was a sudden exultation in Jack's mind as he felt the chair responding to him.
He was linked to it. With it, he could see all the ships in the air above them. Death gliders, fighters, even the Tok'ra ship that was cloaked directly above them. All of them were targets, now, and the chair was ready to deal with them.
Not all of them, Jack said, silently. He could differentiate enemy form friend, now, and there was no way he'd be responsible for taking out the entire fleet of fighters as well as the death gliders.
The chair replied by dropping the fighters from the target list – and Jack once more qualified the list.
Not that one, either…The Tok'ra ship was taken from the list, as well, leaving only death gliders.
Now!
Instantly, bolts of energy seemed to come out of nowhere, blinding Daniel and Sam as they filled the room with a violent light. Before either could say anything, they were gone, heading up the shaft made by the ring transporter device and out into the open sky.
All of them skirted past the Tok'ra ship – many missing only by a few feet at the most – and each singled out their own target. All around the area, death gliders started exploding.