Chapter 2 – The Hold

"Ow," Jack stated to the air as he regained consciousness.

"Oh good, you're back with us, Colonel," Jack heard the vaguely familiar voice float to him.

Jack opened his eyes to see Aris Boch on the other side of the Tel'tek hold, casually leaning on some cargo boxes. The pins and needles feeling from the zat blast was starting to fade. "Yeah, what do you want?" Jack groused.

Boch grinned, "Oh, I already got what I want. I just have to go collect the cash."

Jack sighed. "Me," he stated flatly.

"Yup," Boch replied.

"Are there any goa'uld left to collect from?" Jack asked.

Boch chuckled, "Not goa'uld this time."

Jack sat up and banged on the force field that surrounded the cot. "Well, you can't be working for those Ori nuts. Who is it this time?" he asked as he tested the field perimeter.

Boch shook his head at Jack's antics, "The Andari. They found some stuff and can't make it work. I convinced them that I knew someone who could. You see that little box next to you. Pick it up."

Jack looked over at a small box next to the cot. It was vaguely cube shaped and about two inches large. Suspicious, he glanced at Boch, "Why?"

"Because they want someone to work their fancy toys. I hear you can do that," Boch replied.

"Not to burst your bubble, but fancy toys are not my thing. Carter usually makes fancy toys work, not me," Jack replied smugly.

Aris Boch laughed, "Not this time. Even she couldn't make that box work."

"But I can?" Jack asked with skepticism.

"Yup. Just pick up that box and I can prove it," Boch stated.

"Fine." Once he picked it up, it turned on. It projected a bunch of colored lights around the cube and played odd music. Weird, but harmless. He put it back down and it turned off.

"See," Boch smirked at him. "That wasn't so hard."

Jack finally got a clue. Crap. They wanted the Ancient Gene. "Let me guess, that was your proof of concept, right?" he asked Boch.

"You got it," Boch replied casually.

"Great. Just, my luck," Jack said to himself.

"Anyway, it will take us a few weeks to fly there from here. Earth is way the hell out of the way. No Chappa'ai. I'll drop the field when I close the door to the flight deck. Food is in those boxes. Water through that door. If I have to stun you every time I open the door, I will. Questions?" Boch said as he stood up and walked to the flight deck.

"I'm sure I'll think of some on the way," Jack replied dryly.

"I'm sure you will," Boch replied. With that Aris Boch spun around and closed the door. With the door closed, the force field around Jack snapped off. A short time later he felt the ship jump to hyperspace.

"Just great," Jack said to the air.

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Jack spent the first few days trying to get out of the force field or not be in the field when Boch came back into the hold. He failed many, many times. Sick of being stunned unconscious, he decided to try to gather intel on the Andari instead.

"So, Boch, how did the Andari come across all the Ancient tech?" Jack asked. "I assume it wasn't just scattered about."

Bock had just left the bathroom and was sitting down to eat. "No, they dug up a huge complex filled with tech they couldn't figure out or activate. It wasn't until Shekmet tried escaping from Anubis' purge that they found out what kind of tech they had. Shekmet recognized it as Ancient. When they denied her asylum, she told them that only the Tau'ri could activate the tech and laughed at them. Of course, they had never heard of the Tau'ri."

"When was this?" Jack frowned at him.

Boch chuckled, "Shortly after you destroyed Anubis' fleet around Earth. Nice job, by the way." He took a few more bites of his meal.

"How did you know that was me?" Jack asked.

"I didn't," Boch replied. "I captured one of Ba'al's Jaffa about six months later and he knew."

Jack thought about it and considered Boch again, "That was a long time ago. Why come after me now?"

Boch took a few more bites and then tossed the empty container in the trash. "I only met the Andari a few weeks ago and they had never heard of where the Tau'ri were. In fact, I was the first person who knew what a Tau'ri was. Hell, they had never even heard of humans."

"That is kinda weird. They know the goa'uld but not humans?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, but it gets weird at the edge of the Forbidden Zone," Boch continued. "I usually have to be careful with who I interact with and how I interact with them."

"Forbidden Zone?" Jack asked.

"No really relevant," Boch commented off-hand.

"How can it not be relevant? We are going there, right?" Jack asked.

Boch chuckled, "The Andari planet we are going to is in Known Space right at the edge of the Forbidden Zone. But, Earth is in the Uncharted Territories. So, technically, we have to go through the Forbidden Zone to get to the Andari planet." Boch grinned. "Realistically, the labels don't mean squat. Space is space. I could care less what someone in the Sebacian Empire has decided to label that part of space."

"What is the Sebacian Empire?" Jack was confused.

Boch smiled, "A powerful group of isolationists that control a big part of the center of the galaxy, namely, the Sebacians."

Jack frowned, "The Sebacians? Who are they? What do they look like if they aren't human?"

Boch grinned wider, "Well, I'm one of them. So, my people, technically."

"Technically? I thought the goa'uld wiped out our people," Jack said.

Boch frowned, "They did. On one planet. My planet. But the Sebacians have many planets. An Empire. Isolationists, and they are assholes."

Jack raised an eyebrow at Boch, as Boch got up to leave back for the cockpit, "But they are your people."

"We share a race. That's it. Now they want to kill me because I have become 'contaminated' by other races. Screw that." Boch left the cargo area and closed the door. The force field popped off, leaving Jack to think about what he had learned.

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