Chapter 36: Results

"Why did he do that?" Lily asked Mitchell, tears were streaming down her face. Mitchell was glad Ronon hadn't been around for that particular display because he wasn't sure he would have been able to stop the big man from going after the man in charge, with deadly consequences. He was examining the small device Sheppard slid into his hands; he had known exactly what he had been planning the minute he had seen Sheppard glance between the man in charge and himself.

"He gave us a way out" he told her simply. He looked across at the other cell and saw the O'Neill's watching him expectantly; they had obviously worked out Sheppard's plan and were now waiting for him to implement the next stage of the impromptu plan.

"But why would he put himself through that sort of abuse?" Lily was now looking the device over his shoulder.

"Because he knew there wasn't another option." He knew it wasn't a particularly helpful answer but he was concentrating on working out how to use the device. Closing his eyes he tried to recall what had been done with the device the few times he had seen it. After a minute or two he opened his eyes and pressed a series of small buttons on the device. He had the device pointed at the front of the cell and the front of both his and the O'Neill's cells slid open.

Lily sprung across the corridor like a gazelle and swooped down to pick up Lucas hugging the giggling tot tightly. Mitchell followed her across and after a brief discussion a basic plan was formed. They were going to very quickly head down the corridor opening all the cells with SGC personnel and once they had figured out who they had they would divide down into two groups. One group would stay with the civilians who were unable or unwilling to fight whilst the other group would head out looking for the central control room. If they were able to get hold of more opening devices they would split down into smaller search parties and they would neutralise guards and strip them of their weapons as they went.

Once they had decided on this they headed down the corridor, the device only opened cells if it was pointed directly at the door so once they had released all the SGC personnel Jack was given the device to begin opening all the other cells and direct people towards the main group. It took about 10 minutes to sort people into the two groups, which was a lot faster than the three had originally hoped. The further down the corridor they got the fewer people they found who had the energy to fight which wasn't altogether surprising given how long some of them had been held captive.

There were a few tearful reunions but everyone was aware they weren't out of danger yet and so they were kept very brief. As they stood to one side as the last of the prisoners were released Jack said "you know old man, you should be the one staying with the group not fighting. Technically we've had the same training and my body is in better shape than yours."

O'Neill just scoffed "you may remember the training I had but you don't have any of the muscle memory that I've developed from a few decades of training and that reflex could be the difference between life and death. I know how you think and have a pretty decent idea what you intend to do in time but you don't need to rush these things it will happen with time is just more difficult for you because of your memories and I don't think anyone on earth will ever totally understand what you are going through, not even me, not entirely."

Jack didn't argue with this and instead ceded the point. O'Neil looked at the two groups that had been formed; he was surprised to see that the larger group was actually the fighting group, this was going to improve the odds but it still left the question of what they would do with the non-fighters to keep them safe. Looking at the fighting group an idea started to form; "Mitchell, did you say the jumpers had been modified so that anyone could fly them?" Mitchell looked over from the group he had been talking to "I haven't seen them sir but that's what Ronon said, I figure he probably knows more about jumpers than either of us."

O'Neil looked back at the fighting group once more before saying "Watson, Anwar, Pike you are going to stay with the non-fighting group" the three pilots look surprised by O'Neill just kept going "if we get a second door controller it will be bought back here and I want you to take all these people to the jumpers, don't fly them off the ship unless you are on the verge of being caught, we don't want to risk getting separated from the ship if anything happens." He could tell they understood what he meant so didn't feel the need elaborate on the risks of being left in the middle of an unknown galaxy with no long range transport.

With that the group split into two and the non-fighting group went to find a suitable place to stay till everything was over while the fighting group went in search of the control rooms.

A/N: To make up for the fact that this chapter and the last are very short...