He was tired and should have stopped for the night but he was passed Denver and it was a straight run now and home soon. There'd be enough time for a good night's sleep before duty in the morning. Right now he was driving through the night listening to Tosca - E lucevan le stelle and thinking of Carter - dangerous thoughts.

Some fool in a behemoth of a SVU swooped up and was riding his tail, the headlights glaring in his rearview mirror no matter how he adjusted it. And, too, traffic had picked up, people rushing home after the weekend.

Then everything happened at once. Traffic came to a complete standstill. The light bars of police cars and ambulances light up the night. Jack stopped in time but the guy behind him slammed into the back of Jack's pickup. He backed up a bit from O'Neill's crumpled bumper and got out of his vehicle. Jack had gotten quite a jolt although restrained by his seatbelt. With all the traffic around them at a complete standstill, he too got out to survey the damage.

"Ah man, sorry buddy." The man said. "You stopped so short I didn't have time to stop or get around you."

Jack could see a nervous looking young woman in the SVU. O'Neill kept his mouth shut, he had a lot to say and none of it remotely polite.

"Hey, there's something leaking from the undercarriage." The man said pointing.

O'Neill bent down to look when the man slammed O'Neill's face into the crumpled bumper. And then again for good measure. The second blow did the trick.

The man shouted to the other people sitting in their cars waiting for the traffic jam to clear. "I think this guy's having a heart attack. I'll get him to a hospital." He hoisted O'Neill over his shoulder and threw him in the back seat where an accomplice taped Jack's hands and feet as well as his mouth. The SVU took off over the center divider and headed north.


"General Hammond, I'm sorry to bother you at home so early in the morning." It was four o'clock and Hammond stood there in his pajamas, phone in hand. "There was a serious accident on Route 25 just south of Castle Rock last night. We have it cleared but one vehicle that was not in the initial accident, just a minor fender bender, did not have anyone in it. We towed it to an impound lot and found it's registered to a Colonel John O'Neill, whom we believe is an officer in your command. We could not locate him. There was no blood in the cab and the airbag was not deployed. When you hear from him could you give him that information."

Son, what have you gotten yourself into now George Hammond thought. He got himself together and off to the base to use the resources there to find his wayward colonel.


What a rookie mistake? Jack brought his taped hands to his face and ripped the tape from his mouth. His nose wasn't broken. It must have fit in the dent in the bumper, but he'd have a black eye or two. What he would give for an ice pack or a package of frozen peas and a fistful of painkillers. He had a horrible headache and didn't have a clue where he was or who had done this.

He worked on the tape around his feet. Not an impossible task with his hands taped together in front of him but not easy, the tape kept sticking together - hands to feet. These guys must be amateurs. He used his teeth to pull at the tape around his hands. That was slow going too. Who the hell would want to do this to him? Was there another Goa'uld on Earth? Had they missed some of Seth's followers? Wouldn't they just kill him? Was it the NID or just a local nut job? Was it just him or were they targeting other members of his team?


"Do you know anything about Colonel O'Neill whereabouts? He's missing." Mayboure asked the surly marine.

"That self righteous asshole is standing in our way." Makepeace, rigid as usual, was pissed.

"Makepeace, what the hell did you do?" Maybourne asked.

"Nothing permanent, just a little lesson to knock him off his high horse. I wouldn't mind getting Carter under my command. I don't want the geek and I sure don't want the Jaffa."

"Look O'Neill might be a cocky SOB but he's smart and could be valuable to our endeavor." Maybourne had high hopes for O'Neill.

"Yeah about that, if your golden boy had been doing his job instead of off on leave we might have a prime piece of tech."

"That ship? I heard about that, totally cutting edge."

"My team, SG-3, was sent to guard it. Couldn't even get the door to open."

"O'Neill can." Maybourne said.

"Yeah but he wasn't there. And this ship, I can't begin to describe how big, it came out of nowhere and picked it up, just picked the damned thing up with some kind of beam and was gone. We lost everything and it was all his fault."

"We've got to be careful or this whole project is going to be exposed. Here's the schedule for the next pickup and the cash is in the usual spot. And no more freelancing." With that Maybourne was gone.


Jack got the tape off finally and a bit of skin with it. He was in a dank cellar of a deserted house in the middle of nowhere. And not even locked in. Seemed strange but his life was strange. He flagged down a passing motorist, got a lift to the nearest town where he phoned the SGC and then called Daniel for a lift.

The weird ship was gone and Jack wasn't totally upset over that, although Carter and her fellow eggheads were probably grief stricken. It had freaked him out but the dreams, the dreams were outstanding.


SG-1, and especially Colonel O'Neill, had a rough go these past couple of weeks thought General Hammond. There was a planet that looked like a tropical paradise he thought he would assign them for their next mission.

The End


A/N: Thanks to those who read and to those who respond. I truly appreciate it.

And if you have a chance listen to E lucevan le stelle, it will break your heart. I like the tenor Franco Corelli