Exodus
Burning pain lanced through her arm from the elbow all the way up through her wrist and palm, even up to her fingertips as Doctor Lam set the fractured bones therein. Marla Jameson inhaled sharply at the pain but gave no other outward sign to her suffering.
"Can you give me the final assess' now, Lam?" Marla asked.
"Five fractures in this arm," Lam replied, wrapping Marla's now-set arm in a cast. "Sprained left ankle, three cracked ribs, scattered second degree burns." She tapped one side of Marla's head away from the numbed area the commander knew held stitches, then the other side likewise. "Seventeen stitches here, five here." She frowned as she continued to wrap the arm. "What in this galaxy did you do to bang yourself up like this, Colonel?"
"Sorry, Doc," Marla replied. "General's gotta hear the report first."
"I'm sure he does." Lam's voice was skeptical and made the edges of Marla's mouth quirk into a smile.
"'Sides, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Finished with Marla's cast, the doctor planted her hands on her hips. "Actually, you'd be surprised how much I'm willing to believe."
If she'd been any other slightly warmer person, if she'd been in any less emotional stress, Marla would have smiled. Instead, she just changed the subject. "Well, what was the final synopsis on Mal Doran? What's her broken bone count? And injuries otherwise…"
"Well, both of her legs are broken in multiple places," Lam began, counting on her fingers. "Collarbone's snapped, spinal cord was almost fractured, broken arm—about as bad as yours, Colonel—concussion, burns of all three degrees, all sorts of cuts that had to be stitched and some odd puncture wounds on her chest and stomach." Lam paused, studying the fact that most of her fingers were in the air. And she shook her head. "Again, what in this galaxy did you do, Colonel?"
As Marla opened her mouth to retort, a different voice cut her off.
"I'd like to know the same thing, Colonel Jameson, if you'll please."
Careful not to put weight on her sprained ankle, Marla snapped to attention as General Landry strode into the infirmary. It hurt her bandaged ribs to be standing like this as well, but protocol—
"At ease," the General ordered, immediately causing Jameson to slack a little. "Commander, don't you have a bad ankle? Shouldn't put weight on that. Sit."
"Yessir." Carefully, Marla sat herself on the hospital bed, looking back to Landry right in the eye. "Gonna begin the debrief here, sir?"
"No one's going to listen," the General replied with a pointed look at Lam. Getting the not-quite-subtle hint, the doctor shrank away. "Besides, in your condition, you probably want to stick close to the infirmary." He held up a finger. "First, Jameson, where's your team?"
Despite her bandaged ribs, Marla immediately went rigid. "It doesn't matter, sir," she grated tightly. "They're not coming back."
"Dead?" The look on the General's face was quiet pain, but also anger that Marla feared would be directed at her…
But still, she truthfully nodded shortly.
"Even Major Grouper?"
The barrage of memories that confronted Marla of her second-in-command were so numerous and completely varying, each one piercing her heart in its own broken way. "Yes, sir. Even him. Chris lasted longer than the others, but they got him just the same."
"Who is 'they,' Colonel?"
"The Ori, sir."
"The Ori?" The General's face pinched into a tight, bewildered frown. "You'd better start explaining yourself now, Jameson!"
"Gladly, sir." Steeling herself, Marla began.
------
The glare of the sun reflected off of something large probably two miles off towards the horizon. From the direction of the Stargate.
At first, Chris Grouper was ready to dismiss it as nothing. Then he remembered that P48-0696 was a fledgling Jaffa mining colony, and that no one should be coming through the 'Gate. His days of worrying about the Goa'uld were over, having been replaced by problems with the Ori.
"Mar," he interrupted his commander's conversation with the Jaffa leader. "Gate's been activated." His eyes flicked to the Jaffa—Ez'zon, wasn't it? "Expecting company?"
The Jaffa shook his head.
The safety on Jameson's gun clicked "off" loudly. "Let's check it out." She gestured to the other members of SG-6. "Adkins, behind me. Then Gonzalez, and Chris, bring up the rear."
The three men nodded and Marla took off at a fast jog, rifle ready and her team in tow. It wasn't long before Chris heard a half-dozen armed Jaffa coming along behind, moving swiftly and almost silently through the woods.
And all ten people—Tau'ri and Jaffa alike—felt their blood run cold as they emerged from the forest and saw their worst fear.
A Prior stood a half-step in front of the rippling blue Gate with his staff and Book of Origin held in either hand.
Six staffs and four rifles sighted him immediately, as much good as that was going to do. None wavered in the least, nor did the Prior's calm, placid expression.
"You go right back through that Gate," Marla barked at him. "You and your kind are not welcome here, Ori scum!"
The alien simply cocked his head.
"Yeah, that's right, Cueball!" Marla snapped, picking fun at his hairless head. "I'm talking to you! Don't you get the meaning of the word 'leave'?"
"Jarucius told Appal to leave—" the Ori follower began, opening his book.
"Yeah, God Almighty—that's Jehovah-Yahweh—told Lot's family to leave Sodom and He told them to never look back," the commander cut in. "And when Lot's wife looked back, she turned into salt. Well, I'm telling you to turn and run. And if you turn and look back, you're gonna be full of bullet-holes—but same basic concept." She waved her gun threateningly. "See, Mr. Prior, you quote your Book of Lies all you want, and I'll just throw the Good Book herself at you."
Behind the Prior, the wormhole remained open the entire time. And slowly after Marla's sermon, he stalked down towards the ring of armed opposers and the Gate fluttered closed behind him.
"Chris," Jameson called, keeping the Prior at the business end of her rifle. "Get a report back to command. Tell them we're taking action."
"But, Mar—" he started.
"Do it, Grouper," she bit out. "And make it brief."
Obediently snapping his mouth shut—and knowing this could earn SG-6 court-martials one and all—Chris Grouper sent the last report of his life.
------
"And that's when you got the report, sir," Marla said to the General. "And when we decided to do something."
"Do you realize what you did was insubordinate?" Landry asked. "You were acting against orders to leave Priors alone, Colonel. That kind of defiance could earn you a court-martial."
"Yes, I know, sir," she replied tightly. "But I'm hoping what I'm going to tell you will outweigh my rebellious action, sir."
"Continue." Skeptically, the General crossed his arms.
"Well, I don't know quite how, but we managed to convince the Prior to go back through the 'Gate…"
------
Gregorio Gonzalez was watching the Ori follower closely when he turned and raised his staff at the Gate. And to Gonzalez's extreme surprise, the Gate rapidly started dialing and activated itself without anyone laying a finger on the dialing device. The Prior just walked right up the steps to the Gate.
Jameson—who'd been standing off to the side speaking with one of the Jaffa—noticed immediately. "Follow him!" she snapped, already running herself.
Gonzalez was a small man, but he pumped his short legs as could and went through the Gate not two steps behind the Ori Prior. He came out on the other side in a gold-bricked palace…
Right behind him, all three of SG-6's other members and four of the Jaffa made it through before the Gate closed down. Roughly, Gonzalez bit out a curse under his breath as he realized just where they had to be.
In the Ori galaxy, in an Ori stronghold.
"No DHD," was Jameson's first observation.
A glance from Gonzalez confirmed that.
"They must have some other method of dialing, then," Grouper input.
Without warning, one of the Jaffa fired his staff-weapon at the ceiling over the Prior's head. A large section crumbled off and tumbled the short four feet down to crash on the Ori follower's head—
------
"Whoa, hold it," Landry said, throwing up a hand to punctuate his words. "Did you just say you killed a Prior? How in this universe did you manage to do that?"
"Well, sir, we just sort of… well… er… squished him, sir," Marla struggled. She demonstrated with her good hand, bringing it down against her leg like the falling roof. "Simple as that."
The General shook his head. "All this time, and it was as easy as squishing them." He sighed. "Just continue, Colonel."
"Well, some how or another, after splitting up from the Jaffa, we found a control room," Marla said. "From there, we got access to the computer, found out they had Mal Doran and went after her. The whole fortress came after us…"
------
Run. Run. Run.
That was the only thought on Beau Adkins' mind at the moment.
He could hear the angry shouts of Ori believers and soldiers hurrying along behind him with weapons. Ahead of him pounded his teammates, lead by the fearless colonel.
And then as an energy bolt passed over his shoulder while he rounded a corner, Adkins' foot caught on something, causing him to topple forward. His shin hit the hard floor first and he not only felt the sharp jab of pan, but he heard an extremely audible crrraaaaaccckkk.
He bit out curses under his breath and winced as he tried to pull himself along.
The next thing Adkins knew, bullets were whizzing past his head in one direction and energy bolts were returning the opposite way. Then there was a break and he jerked his head up.
His teammates were against the corridor walls, rifles aimed back up the hall at the enemies.
"Get your butt up, Adkins!" Jameson barked.
"Can't, ma'am," he groaned in reply.
Jameson swore and momentarily glanced down at her subordinate. "Dangit, Adkins, when did I ask you if you could or couldn't get up?" She resumed firing at the enemy and spoke through gritted teeth. "Get up or you're getting left!"
Adkins knew what they said at the SGC about Colonel Marla Jameson: she was a brilliant strategist, but cold, harsh, unfeeling and too close-minded. And he knew from experience—especially now—that what they said was all too true.
Stubbornly, he pushed himself to his knees and tried to crawl along. But searing, white-hot agony pressed him back down.
The last thing Beau Adkins saw was the floor of an Ori fortress.
-------
"They got Adkins before we even got to Mal Doran," Marla said, shaking her head. "Burned him up beyond recognition. We managed to get all of that particular group in retaliation."
"What about the four Jaffa?" the General asked.
"We lost contact, sir."
"Ah. Anyway, then you picked up Vala…"
"Yes, sir." Marla nodded. "She was in some kind of detention cell, apparently tortured. She was a real sight, sir, beaten and bloody. Not only that, but she was delirious too. All she would say was 'Daniel, Daniel, Daniel,' no matter what we asked. I carried her out... and it seems we set off some kind of self destruct on the way out. Then we had more Priors and soldiers on our tail. They got Gonzalez."
When Marla paused, the General nodded for her to continue.
"Then the ceiling started falling down. A piece hit me, and did most of this damage." She raised her casted arm and splinted ankle as evidence. "And it hurt Mal Doran too. Chris got me up, and I got Mal Doran. We got to the control room and dialed home…"
-------
The familiar sound of a dialing Stargate reached Chris Grouper's ears as he pounded down the golden hallway behind Marla. She was panting and limping, but she kept on running for her life…
Ahead of them a blue light flashed into existence and lit their way.
And the corridor dropped away into a Gateroom…
Safety, Chris thought.
But it was not to be.
He was hit hard from behind with something he couldn't identify. The heat spread agonizingly throughout his whole body... The next thing he knew, he slammed into the ground with shattering force.
And when he recovered from the shock, he realized that he'd been shot.
"Chris!" came a pained shriek calling his name.
He looked up to see his commander standing at the Stargate, staring down at him with a horrified look.
Chris Grouper knew what they said about Marla Jameson at the SGC and he knew he was the only one in a long time that had punctuated her cold exterior. And he knew how far back his loss would set her, and how much pain it would cause.
"Sorry, Mar," he whispered to her. "Sorry."
She foolishly started back down the steps to help him.
"No…" he insisted as the life left him. "Go. Go, Mar, go."
Her jaw set and with a determined look, she turned and ran through the Gate, leaving her dead friend behind.
------
"And that's when I came through the Gate, sir," Marla finished. "With the Ori fortress crumbling behind me."
"Do you think you put it out of commission?" the General asked.
She nodded lightly. "Yessir, I think it's a strong possibility."
"Well then, I think your accomplishment and bravery probably outweighs your insubordination. Good work, Colonel. You're dismissed."
A/N: The story of Lot can be found in Genesis.