Title: Ship of the Line: Walk in Dark Places

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: General for Buffy and Babylon 5. Season 1 for Stargate SG1

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Babylon 5 or SG1. I would buy them but I am broke.

Summary: Answer to the Ship of the Line Challenge on TTH. The Scoobies dress as people who walk in dark places and do what must be done.

"" denotes speech, '' denotes thought

"Carter." Colonel O'Neill's voice came over the radio.

"Reading you, Colonel." Sam responded

She ducked into a side alcove covering ahead with her MP10, while Daniel covered the rear with the two Pistols he was wielding.

"Get to a window and tell me what you see." Jack O'Neill ordered.

"Yes, Sir." Sam replied.

She looked over a Daniel, who nodded to a door hidden in the golden architecture just ahead. Sam covered him as Daniel manipulated one of the Hieroglyphs to open the door. Heading into the room, they looked out the forcefield reinforced clear wall.

"Well, shit." Daniel said.

"Colonel, I'm seeing it." Sam said into the radio. "Though I don't believe it. Is that Jupiter in the distance?"

"That's confirmed, Captain." Jack replied. "We've been on station half way between Saturn and Jupiter for the last four hours, since Teal'c's mentor put Klorel into the Sarcophagus."

"Sir?" Sam asked.

"Never mind." Jack ordered. "Tell me you set the C4."

"Yes sir." Sam said, nervously.

"How long do we have left?" Jack asked.

"Twenty-one hours and change, Colonel." Sam replied, and waited for a second before adding, "In my defence, we thought we had a year."

"Great." Jack replied. "What are we going to do now?"

"Sorry to interrupt, but I may be able to offer some assistance." A refined female voice broke in.

"Identify yourself." Jack snapped.

"My name is Shok'Na Cordelia Chase, in Command of White Star 19, Colonel." The voice replied. "We are here to determine if the vessels you are on pose a threat to Earth, and defend the System if necessary. Can you identify the vessels?"

While Jack explained the Goa'uld and their planned attack and invasion of Earth, Sam could not help but think that the terms Shok'Na and White Star were familiar.

"We copy, Colonel." Cordelia replied once Colonel O'Neil finished. "Find a way to evacuate and we'll provide a pickup."

With a cutting motion to her throat, she ordered the channel closed. A moment later the Anla'Shok at the Sensors and Communications station confirmed that the channel was closed.

"Weapons, lock on to the port side target." Cordelia ordered. "Comms, relay the order to White Star 22."

While the order was being sent to White Star 22, Cordelia turned to Xander at the Jump and Navigation station.

"Given the new intel, should we try to talk to them?" she asked quietly.

"Talking will keep them off guard, and give the Colonel and his team time to evac." Xander replied.

"Comms, have you found the frequency the ship is using?" Cordelia asked.

"Affirmative, Co… Shok'Na Chase." Jasmine Thomas replied.

Jasmine was one of the original Anla'Shok recruits, one of the cheerleaders from Sunnydale High with Cordelia. She had not been good friends with Cordelia, but they had been friendly at Sunnydale High. She was the best Sensors and Communications of the recent graduates and was permanently assigned to Buffy's White Star 43. At Graduation, she got the Linguistics prize as she now spoke fourteen languages reasonably fluently, including Minbari, Narn, French and three Demonic Languages. She had spoken five when Cordelia had first recruited her.

"Good." Cordelia replied. "Broadcast on a band around that frequency. Simple message stating that they are encroaching on the boarders of the Interstellar Alliance. Start in Minbari, repeat every minute, change languages after four repeats. Don't use Egyptian. When they respond fake a learning curve of trying to understand. We want to buy time."

"Weapons, have you got a lock on vital systems?" Xander asked, moving over to stand behind Faith's station.

"As far as I can tell." Faith replied. "Truth be told, I'm mostly going on gut instinct here, Boss."

"Faith, I would trust your instincts over most hard Intelligence reports." Xander replied. "If this goes hot, give them everything you got."

"You got it, Boss." Faith replied, proud of the Shok'Na's confidence in her.

When the first transmission blared over the speakers of the command deck of the Ha'tak, the First Prime turned to Apophis to see what his God made of the transmission.

It was not in any language that the Goa'uld was familiar with, but given their position between two Gas Giants in the outer reaches of the system, Apophis quickly concluded that the transmission had to be coming from ship.

"Find the ship that is transmitting that noise." Apophis ordered.

"Yes, My Lord." The First Prime replied, issuing orders to the other Jaffa.

After the fourth time through, the transmission changed to another language that Apophis again did not recognise. If Doctor Jackson had been there he would have identified the second language as Ancient Greek. After a sixth different language Apophis finally lost his patience.

"Fire on the vermin ships!" Apophis yelled.

"Yes, My Lord." The First Prime replied.

In desperation, not having been able to find the slightest trace of any unknown ships anywhere, the Jaffa in change of weapons simply selected five different random coordinates, making sure not to target Klorel's Ha'tak, and fired.

Throughout the frustration of the transmissions and futile search for the stealthy White Stars, the crew of both Ha'tak completely failed to notice six Death Gliders quietly emerge from Klorel's Ha'tak and make their way towards the innermost of Jupiter's 'Galilean Moons', Io, under minimum thrust.

With the firing of Apophis' flagship, the two White Stars went onto full alert and moved to engage.

TBC…