The Jaffa were gone. That was about the only good thing that was happening as far as Rodney McKay was concerned. Lieutenant Brooks still hadn't returned, and was probably captured or maybe dead, for all he knew – and sure as shoot he'd probably already planted the ZedPM somewhere and the Goa'uld ship was probably going to blow any minute – with Rodney still sitting in the cloaked ship in the hangar bay. Which of course wasn't his idea of a great way to go out.

Not that he had any other way in mind, or anything.

He looked out the rear hatch, towards the hangar exit Ian probably had used. Cloaked as the ship was, he wasn't really worried about being seen, but he was definitely playing in his mind's eye just how destructive the explosion was going to be when the ZedPM went off. It was depleted, sure, but it was going to be enough to make sure that the mothership went up – and Rodney definitely hated the thought of being on it when that happened.

Of course, there wasn't a lot he could do. He couldn't go looking for Ian – even if he thought that he might be able to help him – which he didn't. The boy was as cloaked as the gateship was, and McKay wouldn't be able to track him. The best he could hope for in such a scenario would be for Ian to see him as he passed by – and that probably wouldn't happen, either.

Even worse, if McKay left the ship there was a very good chance that if Lieutenant Brooks returned and found him gone, he might just leave without him. Presuming, of course that he hadn't been captured. Which he probably had.

"What do I do…?" McKay asked himself, looking back at the controls of the gateship once more. They were dead, and were going to remain that way until the lieutenant returned, he knew. "What do I do…?"

Then the ship gave a shudder that almost knocked him off the ramp of the gateship, and McKay felt his entire being seem to freeze as he waited for the end. Surely that was the first sign of an eminent overload? When nothing happened a moment later, though, he bit his lip in consternation, still torn and well beyond panicked.

"What do I do…?"

There was no answer, however, coming from the ship, and he finally swallowed hard, looked down at the gun in the holster he was wearing and then headed down the ramp. Maybe he'd go a little ways out of the hangar – just to see if he could see what was happening. Anything was better than just sitting and waiting for everything to blow up around him, after all.

Maybe.

OOOOOOOOOO

"We're getting reports from all the commanders of the air groups, sir!" one of the President's men called, looking down at the laptop he was stationed in front of. "The alien ships are being blown out of the sky by some kind of strange bolts of energy…"

Shawn and Andrew weren't the only ones in the room to give a cheer – and theirs weren't even the loudest. Hammond was grinning ear to ear; pride in the people under his command showing quite plainly on his face, while Hayes was shaking hands with the closest of the diplomats.

"It worked!"

Shawn grinned, and looked at Andrew.

"They must have found the weapon."

"And kicked the shit out of Anubis' pilots," Andrew agreed, grinning just as crazily.

Hammond shook his head, even in his relief. There was no doubt who Andrew hung out with in his spare time, was there? He didn't say anything, though. Instead, he looked at one of the men at the laptops.

"Casualties?"

The man nodded, looking back down at his screen.

"There were heavy pilot losses at the beginning of the engagement, sir. Reports are still coming in, though, and the pilots are starting to land their planes – worried about being knocked out of the sky as well, probably. We won't have a final count for some time."

"Any word from SG-1?" Hammond asked one of his own men, who had been positioned at the doorway.

The man shook his head.

"Not yet, sir."

"Anubis is still out there," Bregman said, reminding them all that he was there. The reporter had been a regular fixture in the room – and several other places in the SGC – during recent events, and Hammond had almost forgotten this was all being filmed. He wondered if they'd edit out Andrew's comment.

Realizing that that was the absolute least of their worries, the general turned to the Airman stationed at the door.

"Get NORAD to feed a line down here into this room," he ordered. "I want to know what's going on with that Goa'uld mothership – and I want someone to start debriefing the pilots as soon as they can."

"I'd like to be in on that," Bregman said, quickly.

Hammond looked over at Hayes, who shrugged and nodded. Why not? If all else failed and something was said that was going to end up being deemed secret, they could always edit that part of the video. That was a benefit to having a military cameraman.

"We'll get you on a plane as soon as possible."

"Do you think it is safe to repeal the freeze on air traffic?" The French ambassador asked.

Hayes shook his head – as did several of the others.

"I wouldn't advise it just yet."

"This isn't over yet," Shawn said. "Anubis is the threat. Not the Jaffa."

The Chinese ambassador scowled, and was obviously ready to say something about Shawn interfering where grownups should be doing the speaking, but Hammond nodded.

"Shawn's right. Keep your people on the ground. For all we know, that weapon might not be able to distinguish friend from foe…"

"And keep transmissions going over the 'net," Hayes added. "We don't know that we're not being listened in on, still, and I don't want to risk our people."

There were nods all around. It wasn't done, yet. But they'd still celebrate what victory they had. It wasn't every day they battled aliens, after all – at least not for most of them.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"Is it working?" Daniel asked, watching as yet another volley of bolts of energy – and he thought they might be more than just energy – went out from the floor around them and shot up the shaft towards the daylight above.

Sam shook her head, watching the hole carefully; waiting for an explosion that would indicate the Tok'ra ship had been hit. She couldn't believe all those missiles would miss the ship carrying Teal'c, her father and Thor, but so far she hadn't seen or heard anything to indicate something was wrong. Unfortunately, she didn't dare try to contact them by radio just yet, either.

"I don't know…"

"What are those things?"

"I don't know…"

There would be plenty of time to find out, later, though. Maybe Ian knew.

Another few whizzed by them, and Daniel gave a startled yelp when one seemed to come right out of the floor underneath his feet. He danced to the side, but the thing didn't even come close to hitting him.

Sam glanced over at the chair, and even though he wasn't looking her direction, and he seemed to be completely involved in what he was doing, she was pretty sure there was a slight smile on Jack's face.