I know I haven't posted anything for ages. I've been really busy at work and haven't had much time to write. I'm really going to try and write more, I promise. It's amazing how easy I found it to write when I should have been writing essays but now I have nothing to do in the evenings I seem to have so little time to keep up with my fic writing! But on the plus side, I do get time to think about possible plots when we're quiet!!
Thanks, as always to my wonderful beta Naliza for everything!!
"And you really think that General Hammond will allow that? He won't even let us walk around the base freely, let alone leave the planet," Daniel protested.
"Do you want this sorted out or not Daniel?" Jack asked abruptly.
"Of course I do but considering that we aren't necessarily in control of our actions and are being watched then we could unintentionally give out who knows what information to them."
"Daniel does have a point Sir," Sam added, she could not see that Hammond would allow them through the gate under the circumstances.
"We can try though can't we?"
"No," Hammond replied simply to their request.
"But Sir," Jack started.
"Colonel, you are too much of a security risk to this facility and this planet to allow you through the gate, who knows what could happen."
"But what of the security risk we pose by just being in the base, knowing what we know," Jack pleaded.
"I appreciate that Colonel but as things stand, I can't allow you through the gate."
"So we're going to be stuck on base forever? That sucks."
Hammond chose to ignore Jack's comment and turned instead to Carter, who had a file open in front of her and was looking closely at the papers it contained.
"Major, is there anything you can do?"
"As I said before, an electro-magnetic pulse might shut these things off. From what I can tell, there's no anti-tamper device in this thing but it might have an auto-reset like Urgo but I can't be sure. This is one of the most advance pieces of technology I've ever seen, I can't really be sure of anything."
"Best guess Major, is it safe to try an EMP?"
"Best guess, yes Sir," Sam replied after a moment of thought.
"Okay, it's the best suggestion we have. Major, go ahead. Just have Dr. Fraiser on standby just in case."
"Is that supposed to be reassuring General?" Jack questioned half-jokingly.
"Dismissed. Keep me informed."
"Yes Sir, thank you," Sam said as SG-1 stood and left the briefing room.
General Hammond stood for a moment, looking out through the windows of the briefing room after SG-1 had left. He wondered if he was following the right course of action. The feeling was not new to him; so many times he had been forced to make a decision which could affect so many lives. Sometimes they were right, sometimes they were wrong. He hoped that this time he had made the right choice.
Sam was setting up the electro-magnetic pulse generator in her lab, Daniel was watching her closely. Jack was idly fiddling with whatever he could find lying around, it was not uncommon for him to do this but today he was picking something up, playing with it for a few seconds before putting it down.
"Okay, we're ready to go," Sam said finally as she shut down most of the machines in her lab and shielded the rest behind the blast doors.
"Teal'c you ready?" Jack asked the Jaffa who was standing by the door, a zat gun in the holster at his hip.
"Indeed O'Neill," he replied.
It had been a last minute idea to have Teal'c in the room and a security contingent waiting outside. It was possible that Sam had missed an anti-tamper device or that whoever was watching would work out what they were trying to do and intervene. Janet and a medical team were waiting outside just in case as well.
"Okay, here goes nothing," Sam said, a slight tremor in her voice. She could not explain just why she felt so nervous about this but it was clear to her that her team mates were feeling just as nervous as she was.
"If our brains explode then we'll know it's not working, anything else is a plus so just get it over with Carter."
"Thank you Sir," she replied slightly exasperated.
She reached and flicked the switch, after a few seconds she looked round and smiled.
"It's done?" Daniel asked.
"Yeah," she replied, deeply relieved.
"Nice one Carter, my brain seems to be in one piece which I'm looking at as being a good thing."
"I'd say so," Daniel agreed. "You feel any different?"
"No but should I?" Jack questioned looking at Sam.
"I doubt it but I can check if the signals are still being emitted."
Sam booted up her computer and looked for any signals either being emitted or going into the device. After a minute she looked up from the screen and smiled.
"I can't find any signals. It looks like it worked."
"Really, great," Jack replied smiling. "Now we can go back to that planet and have a word with our friends."
"Don't get ahead of yourself Jack. General Hammond won't let us go until he's sure we're not under their control any more."
"I thought I was the pessimist of the group Daniel."
"You've been a bad influence on me," Daniel replied dryly.
"We should go update Janet and Hammond," Sam suggested. She was not in the mood for O'Neill and Daniel's banter.
"Indeed," Teal'c agreed from the doorway. He swiped his card and opened the door, all those assembled looked up expectantly.
"The test appears to have been successful," Teal'c informed them evenly.
"Well done Sam," Janet said with a smile, a trace of relief evident on her face.
"Nothing's certain yet Janet."
"But nothing's going in or out of these things and that's good enough for me," Jack concluded positively.
"Good work Major," Hammond said as Sam filled him in about the successful test.
"Thank you Sir," Sam replied.
"Look Sir. Now that these things have been shut off can we go back to the planet and sort this out once and for all?"
"If nothing changes in the next 72 hours then we can reassess the situation but not before then, I'm sorry."
"But we could be there and back in 72 hours," Jack pleaded.
"I'm sorry Colonel, there's no debate."
"Fine," Jack reluctantly agreed.
"I will ask you to remain in the infirmary or your quarters for now though."
"Yes Sir," Sam agreed before Jack had the chance to protest.
"Dismissed."
Jack, Sam and Daniel had congregated in one of the VIP rooms. They were all bored, their access to the base computers was still limited and they were still not allowed to walk around the base without an escort.
"I'm going crazy being stuck in here," Jack sighed as the batteries on his Gameboy packed in and the small screen shut off.
"I don't really care. I'm getting some work done," Daniel replied. "Or I would be if some people would be quiet for a minute," he added bitterly as Jack put new batteries in and started the game again.
"What is that supposed to mean Daniel?" Jack asked without any trace of humour in his voice.
"It means that some of us are trying to work. Do things that they've wanted to do for weeks but as some people seem to want to play childish computer games and disturb everyone they can't get anything done."
"Say what you think Daniel," Jack replied, anger creeping into his voice.
"I think that I just did," he replied.
"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, the tremor returning to her voice.
"Keep quiet," Jack shouted at her.
"Don't shout at me, I haven't done anything. I know I haven't done anything," Sam replied, half-shouting.
Daniel slumped down in his chair and sighed deeply.
"I was talking to you, what do you think you're doing?" Jack shouted at him. Daniel simply shrugged and looked around the room.
Jack strode over to him and grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him up and out of the chair.
I do hope that it was at least slightly worth the wait!! I'd love to know what you all think of this chapter, submit a review and let me know!! :D