Sorry this took so long, I got halfway through writing this chapter before I realized that I was writing this pre-Ba'al-clones so I had to rethink the whole thing. I think it turned out alright though- enjoy :)
General George Hammond walked in, saving Sam from Kinsey's retort. "General, nice of you to join us," he said instead. The General paid no attention to the man, throwing Sam an inquisitive look at her attire before placing a folder on the President's desk.
"Good morning, Mr. President," the President gave his a look that made clear that this morning was not 'good' in any way shape or form. "That is a compilation of all the ideas that have been thrown around by the ambassadors and myself over the past year concerning press releases and suggestions for revealing the stargate program."
"Give me the highlights, George."
"The favored option, sir, is putting together a speech that sets up the viewers for the documentary made by Emmitt Bregmann a few years ago which will properly acquaint the world with the stargate program. Then have a press conference somewhere indoors, lots of security, access to stargate personnel from the tape, and that's about as far as we ever got without yelling at each other."
"That'll work, George I want you to set that up, Kinsey, I don't even know why you're here, O'Neill I want yourself and the Colonel here available at that press conference; Colonel I suggest you find yourself a uniform and some more coffee," he would've smiled sympathetically on any other day but too much was happening and his face just wasn't responding for that sort of thing.
Sam went looking for her uniform, it seemed ridiculous that she should be preparing for a press conference when she really should be out fighting Ba'al, which was what she was good at. Unfortunately, she was a good little soldier and had to do as she was ordered.
Sam hadn't been able to track down a uniform for herself before the alkesh reached the White House; Jack had found himself a sidearm though. The pair of them were sticking to the President as close as the secret service were, only they'd dealt with this enemy before.
Outside they could hear the sounds of Ba'al's continued air attacks. President Hayes had finally agreed to evacuate when even the press stationed dutifully outside the White House gates had begun to flee for cover. Staff blasts exploded on the walls around them, taking out three secret service members before, Sam and Jack had already thrown themselves into action; Jack had grabbed the President and pulled him behind a column, Sam spun around, her zat outstretched. The three jaffa that had happened upon them were dead on the ground before the secret service had even drawn their weapons.
"Sir," Jack said, pulling the President from behind the column," we should probably keep moving…"
Nobody needed to be told twice, the slightly smaller group started jogging down the corridor, slipping through doorways and eventually exiting into an underground passageway. Unfortunately, their underground passage had been discovered by Ba'al and it was full of jaffa. Now would definitely be a good time, Thor! Jack yelled silently at his short, gray friend.
They began firing, jaffa barring their path in both directions. Gunfire and zat blasts filled the tunnel making their eardrums quake. C'mon Thor! Jack knew he was in orbit, if not he was already aiding the Promethius. Suddenly, white light flashed and they were all aboard Thor's ship. "Cease fire!" Jack yelled, fearing that one of the secret service agents would hit Thor. The said agents all drew in around the President, trying to figure out what had just happened.
Accustomed to this sort of travel, Jack and Sam holstered their weapons and looked around for Thor. "Thor? Hello?" He didn't get an answer. Sam went to the computer and started pushing buttons until a hologram appeared.
"I am glad to see that you are all right," He was looking at Sam and Jack, not the President, Jack noted. "I am sorry for the delay but my ship is currently in place defending the SGC; I had to remotely pilot this one to get you, and the beam had trouble locking on you due to the concrete tunnel you were in."
"Thanks Thor," Sam said, she pushed another button and brought up a screen displaying a map of the U.S. with little blinking dots showing where various ships were. The Promethius and Thor's two ships were protecting what they could with help from the X-302s and more traditional fighter planes. The screen showed that their allies that knew about the stargate program had already mobilized their own air forces and were on their way to help defend the planet. It appeared that Ba'al had a mothership and at least four alkesh. He was concentrating his strike to the U.S.; having moved away from just Cheyenne Mountain and Washington D.C., he was now attacking big cities.
Jack checked his watch, "Mr. President, Mr. Bregmann's film is running on every channel that is still functioning as we speak."
"Good, now where can we have that press conference?"
They ended up in the 'gateroom of the SGC. The secret service agents were going nuts, none of them had known anything like this existed, but they were all performing remarkably. None had even thought of leaving the President's side, even though they'd been shot at by aliens, beamed aboard an alien ship, and beamed back into a facility that by all records didn't exist.
"Walter, dial the 'gate and get the Tok'ra in on this! Thor's helping but he's got his own problems," he turned to Sam, "They owe us still, right?"
Sam could only shrug; they'd helped each other out so much in the past that the official score had been lost long ago. They met the rest of SG1 as they left the 'gateroom, all looking as disheveled as Sam, but at least they'd found the proper uniforms. There wasn't time to think of that now though.
The chevrons lit up and the 'gate 'kawooshed.' They made contact with the Tok'ra, Jacob Carter promised to set off in an alkesh right away, but he wouldn't be there until late that night, and he didn't know if any of the others would be willing to come. Jack decided to take what he could get and not press, thanking Sam's dad profusely before the 'gate disconnected.
After that things really went to hell.
Walter reported that Ba'al was landing his mothership on the mountain, thousands of jaffa pouring from inside of it and moving into Colorado Springs.
"Great," Jack said. The doors around them were crashing closed, effectively sealing the jaffa on the opposite side. Sam, still in her pajamas, had taken the President and his secret service into the briefing room, where she had finally convinced them all to sit and relax a moment before the real trouble started.
People came pouring in from the upper levels, shooting the surveillance cameras as they went, "What the hell are you doing!" Jack yelled, coming into the room in time to see one of the marines from SG3 shoot the cameras in the briefing room. "Those things are freaking expensive to replace!"
"Sir, Ba'al's got the surveillance room, so, unless we want him to be able to see everything…"
"Point taken."
"He's come that far that fast?"
"Yes, ma'am." The marine nodded.
"Shit," it was under her breath but the whole room heard it.
Daniel came through Jack's office, slamming both the entrances shut as he left. "They're jaffa in that hall; Mr. President, you should be evacuated to the alpha site…"
After some protest and comments about going down with the ship, the President finally agreed to go through the 'gate. The secret service men would be going with him as well as the nonessential personnel of the SGC, and the important people from all over the world that Thor had begun beaming into the 'gate room. Most of the people who appeared were completely clueless as to where there were, how they'd gotten there, and a thousand other things. The battle noises coming from the upper levels didn't help at all.
Sam made her way to the armory, bringing back as much as she could carry and handing it all out to the personnel gathered in the control room. The President stepped through the wormhole and the 'gate shut off, it's thirty-eight minute limit reached. Walter started the dialing sequence again, but not before it was activated from offworld.
This is sooo short, I'm sorry! I'll work on this one instead of my other one all week, I promise! (Or at least I'll try too… I'm kind of distractible.)