Termination
Mid January, the weather in Colorado was beyond frigid. Jack liked the snow as much as any other man, but he did wish that he could keep his car's heater running all day. He was always half way home before his truck reached just the right temperature. His home on the other hand, had a thermostat, and he did so appreciate it.
He grabbed a beer from his refrigerator and opened it. An odd feeling fell over him though, as he took the first sip. A haze fell over his mind. He knew that he should do something, but he couldn't think what, so he sat down at the kitchen table instead.
When he did so, an odd man walked through the door. He had long, black, untamed hair, and loose dirty clothing. The man looked awful. Years of training and experience told Jack what to do. Slowly, mechanically, he pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the man.
"That won't work," said the man. "Not right here, not right now. I took care of that. It won't work, Jack O'Neill."
Jack didn't reply. He pointed the gun at the man's shoulder and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. The man sat down across from him, and Jack put the gun down.
"Who are you?"
"That's a secret," the man said, "an important secret. It's dangerous to tell. I have to ask the questions here; that's why I put truth serum in all of your drinks. Tell me where my godson is."
"I don't know." The question asked, everything else went out of focus, all that mattered was answering the question, but he didn't know the answer.
"Why don't you know?" asked the man.
"I don't know who your godson is."
There was a howl; it came from the man sitting across from him. "Harry! Harry Potter. You were searching for him. Where is he?"
"I don't know anymore."
"But you did."
"Yes."
"What happened to him?"
"Harry lived in a cupboard and was otherwise mistreated by his relatives. Harry was taken as a host by the goa'uld Isis at Heathrow International Air Port. Harry was taken off of Earth to Calaissis. Harry freed himself from Isis and killed him. Harry's hand device incorporated itself into his arm. Harry contemplated suicide, but rescued Sarah from the goa'uld Osiris instead. Harry upgraded his ship to run with Naquadria. Harry defeated the goa'uld Tanith and his fleet; he saved the Tollans. Harry got a new ship, a new reactor, and a new cannon."
"I thought I was crazy," said the man. It wasn't a question, and Jack started to come back into focus. "What are you talking about?" The haze returned.
"Harry Potter, and the Stargate Program."
"Tell me about the Stargate Program."
Jack answered him.
!
Sirius was fighting the urges to both laugh and cry. He knew that he was close to insanity; he was certainly unstable. But the man across from him sounded fit for a loony bin. But he couldn't be insane; the Veritaserum was proof of that. The potion could filter through minor delusions, and if the man were truly insane, then there was little chance of him being an active military colonel.
He imagined his mother's reaction if she were to find out what he was learning now. Muggles traveling to different planets. Just to prove that they could, the American Magical Democracy had sent two wizards to the moon shortly after their muggle counterparts had. Sirius knew that the magic didn't exist to travel to another planet. He imagined his mother's face, imagined telling her that muggles could do something amazing that wizards couldn't. He shook his head; he was here for Harry, not for his mother.
He had been watching O'Neill for close to a month hoping to find some hint of where Harry was. The news of his godson's escape had reached even Azkaban, and after escaping from Azkaban, he had learned of the man by questioning the Dursleys, who were awaiting trial. He had come to America in secret, letting the world think that he was still in the United Kingdom. His journey complete, it had been simple enough to find the Air Force Colonel named Jack O'Neill. When nothing had turned up, he had decided to take a more proactive approach to the search, and had managed to acquire the truth serum off the black market, after he had acquired another wand.
"Enough about the Stargate program," he said finally. "What are your intentions towards my godson?"
"I want to bring him back to Earth," stated the Colonel.
"Why?" He preemptively restrained himself. He would destroy the man if he meant to hurt Harry, but he needed to get as much information as he could first.
"Harry's nine years old. Nine year olds shouldn't be fighting. He needs a home, and friends. He should be protected."
Sirius let out the breath he had been holding. "You don't want to use him for this Stargate Program?"
"He can help if he wants to. I think he'd want to," said the Colonel.
"How can he help?" asked Sirius.
"He retained the knowledge of Isis and Osiris. He can help us to understand their technology."
"How was he, the last time you saw him?" asked Sirius.
"Harry was healthy. He was still recovering from being a host. He was dealing with his responsibility for the destruction of the goa'uld fleet," said O'Neill.
"How can I get to him?" His godson needed him that much was clear.
"You can't," O'Neill stated succinctly.
"Why not?!" spat Sirius, his ire flaring again.
"The Stargate is too well protected. You would not be able to get to it," said O'Neill simply.
"What if I were invisible?" asked Sirius.
"We have ways to detect invisible persons. You would likely be detected."
"What if I took someone else's appearance?" asked Sirius.
"We've dealt with that before. You would likely be detected."
"Do you have any ships?" asked Sirius.
"Nothing has been finished yet," said O'Neill.
"When they're finished, would they be more accessible?" asked Sirius.
"Yes," stated O'Neill.
Sirius sighed and shook his head. "Look out for my godson." It wasn't a question.
Jack looked up. "I will."
Sirius pulled out a small vial of dandelion extract. The juice would nullify the effects of the Veritaserum. He opened the vial and poured a few drops into his own mouth, letting the other man see, before handing it to him. "Drink this," he instructed O'Neill. He wanted more information, but Veritaserum could be toxic if used for long periods of time in muggles. "I'd get rid of the rest of your drinks, if I were you. I doctored them all."
Sirius walked out of the room, and Disapparated as soon as he was out of sight of the muggle.
!
On Oberdad, Harry and two Tollan scientists stood around the dialing device. It had been over a week since Harry had first attempted to access the data within. He had been working constantly on the project, taking a break only to go to the small funeral for Ammit's host. Today though they were finally making progress. The two Tollans had proved to be very helpful; their computers allowing Harry to see all of the data they were trying to retrieve. Copying it to a crystal so that it could be analyzed was still proving difficult. They had discussed trying to remove the crystal it was isolated in, but discovered that the system would destroy the data before they could. Harry had been forced to try different tactics, past the brute force he had earlier employed.
He nodded to Shen and Dullis, and renewed his efforts. He made a tunnel of energy around the separated code and connected it to the crystal. He imagined an emptiness in the crystal as he constricted the energy around the code. The Tollan computers gave a command through the system for the information to transfer. Harry's eyes widened as the data finally flowed into the crystal.
"It's done," he said, though the Tollans could already tell as much.
"The data exists only on the crystal, the information did not copy itself," said Shen, a small frown on his face betraying how perplexed he was by the problem.
"The system wouldn't let it," Harry replied. "But we should be able to copy the crystal, and return the data."
"I believe that you are correct," said Dullis. He pulled the crystal from the dialing device and connected it to his tablet computer. "The data is copying." A second later, he disconnected the crystal and placed it back into the dialing device. A single command later, and the data was where it had started.
"Congratulations, Captain Potter," said Shen. "We may well be the first to have accomplished this."
"I hope so," said Harry. He was looking at the data scroll across the screen. "This data still doesn't make any sense. I don't think the actual addresses are in here. It gives starting locations from thousands of years ago, and the calculations that track them."
"The math doesn't make sense though," said Dullis, the more serious of the two scientists.
"I know what you mean," said Harry. "The goa'uld copied a lot of Gatebuilder coding to use for their own, but there are symbols here I don't understand. The stuff I do still doesn't add up."
"We will have to analyze this back on Tollana," said Shen. "We will send a copy of it to your ship so that you may search through it as well. I am sure that we will be able to make sense of it eventually."
"I hope so," said Harry, "because that's one week that I'm not getting back."
!
The clearing in which the Tollan Stargate stood was not as empty as it usually seemed to be. SG-1 was waiting for them with a two-man Tollan escort. Harry smiled at Sam and the rest and greeted them.
"Hey Sam," he gave her a hug, setting his things on the ground. "How are you all?"
"We're okay Harry. Things have been a little crazy since I left, but we're okay."
"That's good. What brings you guys here though?" Harry asked.
"We wanted to talk to you actually," said Jack.
"Here to offer me another tour of the SGC?" asked Harry. It was becoming something of a running joke.
"Well," he said, "that too, but mostly we're here to ask you about your godfather."
That took Harry by surprise. "I have a godfather?"
"I don't know," said Jack, "but the guy who broke into my house sure thought so."
"Er," said Harry, "why don't we talk on my ship. I want to start analyzing some data right away."
"Sure," said Jack.
Harry looked at Shen questioningly.
"I will have the information sent immediately," said the man.
"Thank you," said Harry. He turned to SG-1. "The ring platform is just over there." He pointed to a patch of grassy ground that looked no different from the rest.
The five of them stood in the center, and Harry activated the Tollan made rings, leaving the four Tollans behind.
"So," said Harry when they entered the living area, "what's all this about a godfather?'
"We asked the Dursley's already," said Daniel, "but if they knew anything they didn't say. Your public records don't mention anything, but that's not very surprising."
"So what happened?" asked Harry.
"This guy got into my house when I was out," said Jack, "he put some sort of truth serum into all of my beverages."
"Sodium pentothal?" asked Harry.
"We have no idea what it is," said Sam, "only that it works perfectly, and that dandelion juice is the antidote."
"We've got a lot of scientists looking at the stuff now," added Jack. "Anyway, he asked me about what happened to you, which led to questions about the Stargate."
"What did he look like?" asked Harry, though he doubted that he'd recognize a description.
"All I remember is long black hair. Everything else is hazy."
"I wish I could tell you more," said Harry, intrigued by the thought of having a godfather.
"Well whoever he is," said Daniel, "he seems to give more evidence for their being more people like you on Earth."
"Is the truth serum necessarily beyond your current science?"
"That," said Sam, "and the fact that for five hours after he left, guns couldn't be fired in Jacks house, matches wouldn't light, and the stove wouldn't turn on."
"He prevented combustion?" asked Harry, surprised.
"Is that something you can accomplish?" asked Teal'c.
"I don't know," he answered, "I'd have to think on it."
His hand device alerted him to a transmission. "Ooh," he said, "they sent the data I was hoping for."
"What are you working on?" asked Daniel.
"We pulled the stellar cartography data from a dialing device," said Harry. "I'm hoping to figure it out so I can get a complete list of all the Stargates in the galaxy."
"Yeah," said Jack, "we sort of have one of those all ready."
"Excuse me," Harry deadpanned.
"Most of one," added Daniel. "It's probably outdated."
"It took us a week to crack that dialing device," said Harry.
"Yes well, you never did ask," said Jack.
"How'd you get it?" asked Harry.
"We discovered an ancient repository," said Teal'c.
"Cheaters," Harry grumbled.
"You know I tried to do the same with a DHD," said Sam, "but I didn't get close to cracking it, it's still beyond us."
"Well, I had magic, and Tollan computers and scientists. Actually, those computers are beyond me too."
"So, let's see it then," said Jack. "A big list of Stargate addresses. We'll see how good ours is."
"Well we can't yet," said Harry, "it didn't store the addresses. It just tells you how to figure it out."
"And?" said Jack.
"And it doesn't make sense. None of the equations do."
"Have you tried using base eight math?" asked Jack, as though that were the most obvious of choices. Sam rolled her eyes at him and Harry looked at him askance.
"Base eight?" he asked.
Sam answered. "When we first discovered the list of addresses, we also found equations that would help to calculate stellar drift. The numbers were base eight."
Harry walked toward the control room and the others followed him. He sat down at a terminal and called up the information before putting in a few commands. The numbers on the screen all changed and Harry's eyes went over the data.
"Hmph," he said. "Base eight math. What made the gate builders so paranoid about this anyway?"
"Well," said Sam, "I don't know about paranoid, but working in base eight actually makes these equations easier to conceptualize."
"Really," said Harry. "I think I can see that now. Can you help me figure these out?"
"Sure," she said.
"I don't recognize a lot of these symbols here," he said.
"Actually, I think you should already know them in different forms," said Daniel. "They're an older form of symbols than the ones the goa'uld copied. I can help you with that."
"Thanks," said Harry. "I'll just bring Shen up to speed with all of this," he said, quickly composing the message and sending it.
It took them the rest of the day to work out all of the relevant equations. Jack and Teal'c wound up leaving to check in with the SGC. But before they were ready to take a break for the night, they finished working out the last of the equations. Harry ordered the ship's computer to calculate the equations with the relevant data, and one at a time, Stargate addresses began to scroll across the screen.
"So how many are there going to be?" asked Jack.
"Eleven hundred and twenty-eight," answered Harry. "That's a little over double what the goa'uld have discovered.
"We have a total of a thousand and eighteen," said Sam, "and we haven't even finished calculating all of them yet."
"Well then," said Harry with a grin. "It's only fair that you get a copy. You did help."
"That's great, Harry," said Sam. "Doctor Grahm has been complaining about the monopolization of that super computer."
"What does he want to do with it?" asked Harry idly.
"He's been working on a program to calculate hyperspace trajectories," said Sam.
"Oh. Good luck, then," said Harry.
"His work looks promising," said Sam. "And he wants to beat the guys in Research and Development to the chase."
"So Harry," said Jack, "what are you going to be doing with this big list of yours?"
Harry shrugged. "I'll be looking around, seeing what I can find. There's a lot out there, I figure I'll find something useful."
"Well, just leave some stuff out there for us," said Jack.
"I'm sure the playground is big enough for the both of us," said Harry.
He could tell that Jack was happy that he wasn't chasing after more goa'uld. Little did the man know.
!
Harry had expected it to be fun to travel to planets not seen for thousands of years. He was systematically traveling to each planet in turn in the Tar'Chell and running a surface scan on each one. The first two planets had been incredibly dull actually, and Harry had nearly despaired.; it was the third that was amazing. The world was picturesque, but it was the buildings on the smallest continent that were amazing. They were largely void of technology; most of them weren't even complete. The small city had been a work in progress when it had been abandoned. The technology used to build what was there had been removed.
There was little left that was useful; Harry couldn't decide whether it would be better to try to inhabit the city or use it for materials. The structure contained a large amount of trinium, and many of the buildings already had power conduits and information relays installed. Either way, Harry didn't have much use for what was there, so he scavenged a few parts that he thought could come in handy, and left, writing up the planet in his report.
For a while, the city was the most exciting thing Harry found. There were gizmos and gadgets to find on a handful of the twenty-two planets he visited after that, and they were all interesting. Many of the objects he found were mostly useless, complimenting other, larger, pieces of technology that were not evident. But it was amazing to explore the complex and perfect devices with his power. Every new thing to study broadened Harry's understanding of Gatebuilder technology. After he studied the devices, he sent his findings to both the Tollans and to Earth, along with some of the technology itself. Some things he kept.
He found a personal shield device along with the long dead remains of what Harry could only assume was an Ancient. Harry knew little of divining secrets from bodies, but it seemed that he had been shot in the back with an energy weapon. Harry supposed that a shield could only help if it was on. He sent his analysis of the device back to his allies, but decided that he would rather keep it to study (and to use). He started to work on mimicking the shields effect with his magic. It was difficult to focus his energy in the right way though. He started planning a way to upgrade the hand device still fused to his arm to incorporate the more perfect shield.
Eventually though he did find a planet inhabited by a goa'uld. Harry didn't think that it was the mysterious and secret goa'uld that was hunting the Tollans though. There was too little security for the world to belong to anything but a very minor goa'uld. There was a small naquedah mine, and a small human population working it. Harry doubted that this goa'uld had ten Jaffa to his name. The only reason this planet had not been claimed by a more powerful goa'uld was because no one else knew it was there. He debated killing the goa'uld, but decided against it. If his allies wanted to take action, and perhaps get a source of naquedah, he'd let them take that responsibility for the planet's population. In the meantime he would continue his search.
!
As Harry explored the far reaches of the Milky Way, SG-1 was discussing the assassination of the System Lords with Ren Al, a Tok'ra scientist.
"We have the opportunity to destroy the System Lords, and perhaps cripple the goa'uld," she said. "The power vacuum this would cause would set the goa'uld against themselves, and while they are fighting we'll be able to take more overt actions against them. With the Tollan people going to war, and the Jaffa rebellion, this summit puts all of the pieces into place. All we need is a human fluent in goa'uld, who is not already a host."
All eyes went to Daniel. "You want me to do this?"
"Would you have a problem with assassinating the most powerful and evil goa'uld in the galaxy?" asked Ren Al.
"None whatsoever," said Daniel.
Jack spoke up. "How exactly do you plan to get our favorite archeologist into this shindig?"
"That aspect of this mission has fallen to Selmak."
!
For all of the technology he had found, and for all of the amazing things he had seen, nothing had quite astounded him until he saw what the SGC would eventually label P5X-101; he was two months into his search. Strategically, there was nothing there worth seeing. There was no technology, no ruins, and no rare materials. But every inch of the planet was beautiful, as though sculpted by an artist's hands. Harry was familiar with some of the natural wonders of his own home world, but nature hadn't been responsible for what Harry was seeing. Someone had created this world long ago to be a paradise, their work so perfect that it maintained itself for millennia.
Harry transported down to the planet, just for a couple of hours, to see it up close. When he returned to his ship, he composed a quick report on the planet, including his sensor readings. He sent it over subspace to the Tollans, and through the Stargate to Earth. He had been sending a report for every ten planets, but he felt compelled to share his finding sooner. Who knew, maybe one day the planet could be enjoyed without the threat of the goa'uld.
Oddly enough, it was the next planet that held what he had been searching for. There were three construction yards on the planet's surface, along with a heavily fortified base. There was evidence of a ship crashed long ago, perhaps Gatebuilder technology. Harry was sure that he had found a planet that belonged to the mysterious goa'uld.
!
Daniel did not think that any of his previous expeditions through the Stargate could begin to compare to what he was doing right then. There he was, hidden in plain sight amongst the most powerful and evil goa'uld, and he was about to kill them all. They had been in session for almost a day already, but they were waiting for one more goa'uld. Daniel had to turn around when the last member of the summit entered. Zipacna would recognize him in an instant. He removed the symbiote poison and pressed the button on the side, combining the two chemicals.
"As we speak," Zipacna was saying, "my forces lay siege to the Tok'ra home world."
Daniel nearly turned around when he heard; the rest of SG-1 was on Revanna with the Tok'ra, along with SG-17. Five seconds later, he felt the colorless and odorless gas quietly pass through his fingers. Only three seconds later, Yu gasped as he was first affected by the gas. The goa'uld to his right stood abruptly. Pandemonium ensued.
!
A quick excursion to the most complete of the ships confirmed that it incorporated the new shield technology. Harry returned to the Tar'Chell to plan the next part of his mission. Not for the first time, Harry wondered why the goa'uld didn't use satellites to see behind blind spots like the moon he was hiding behind.
Well past his ship's midnight, Harry had had a pasta dinner, and a couple snacks after that. He would rather have been sleeping, but it was nightfall at the shipyards, and everything would be abandoned for the night. This was the best time for a strike.
Harry opened a hyperspace window to the compound and disappeared from his ship. He appeared in the center of the compound, with his new shield already raised. He took a shot in the back from a quick reacting Jaffa. Harry turned around deactivated his shield before shooting two Jaffa with his zat'ni'katel. Just his luck, alarms went off, likely sensitive to the weapons fire. Fortunately, he had come out in the command room, as he had hoped. He went to an access terminal and called up the schematics of the base. There were loud footsteps behind him, and Harry had to roll out of the way of a staff blast. Taking one last glance at the map, he opened another hyperspace window back to his ship. He didn't stop to rest though. He quickly opened another window and appeared in the quarters of whichever goa'uld ran the base. He didn't find what he was expecting though.
!
Daniel wound up dragging Yu's body back to the cargo ship. He claimed that he was taking the body back to one of Yu's worlds with the hope of reviving him in a sarcophagus. Three of the other slaves were trying the same. Two of the other human slaves had killed themselves. The other two had simply sunk into despair, becoming despondent. Daniel didn't have time to worry about them. Reaching the docked Tel'tak, he left Yu's body outside and closed the door behind him. He pulled out the Tok'ra communicator.
"Jacob," he said into the device.
"Daniel," replied Jacob, "have you completed the mission?"
"I did, we got Zipacna too. But we need to leave now, they've found Revanna."
Selmak took over. "How? When?"
"I don't know, I'd already activated the poison, I never got any details. Should we contact anyone?"
"If the attack is already underway, then it will do no good," said Jackob. "There can be no help through the Stargate. We are on our own. Am I correct in assuming that Yu's ship has a cloak?"
Daniel consulted the ships controls. "Only the best for Lord Yu," he answered.
"Okay, here's the plan."
!
"You are no goa'uld," said Harry to the black-cloaked figure, whose face was hidden by an illusion. He could sense no symbiote.
"I am Anubis, mortal, it is you who tries to pass as a god. But no matter, your secrets shall soon belong to me."
"Anubis was assassinated millennia ago." At least, Harry hoped so. There had never been a goa'uld as terrible as Anubis. "He died alone and friendless." Harry's hand device silently told him that the time-delayed instructions he had given his ship were being carried out. The Tar'Chell would slip out from behind the moon and fire upon the construction sights, he had figured that it would work well for a distraction.
"Alone, yes. Friendless, yes. But I am not so easily killed, for I am a true god." He activated a device on his arm, summoning the guards, Harry knew.
Before the doors could open, Harry summoned a ball of fire, and threw it at Anubis. The black cloak went up in flames, but all that this garnered was laughter.
"You cannot kill a god!" shouted Anubis.
Harry raised his shield before he took two staff blasts to his back, the kinetic force sending him to the ground. He shot himself to the other side of the room, and dropped his shield. He shot two of the Jaffa before shooting back to his starting point. The Jaffa anticipated him though, and he had to dodge two more staff blasts. He raised the shield once more and pulled his knife. He ran and leapt at the two Jaffa and dropped his shield at the last second, before his knife went into the neck of one, and his fist into the face of the other. A kick to the back of the head of the latter Jaffa left them both on the ground.
Harry put his hand on the doorway, and pushed his power in, making the doors shut and lock. He turned his attention back to Anubis, who was still laughing. Without the cloak, Harry could see that there was no body, just a darkness encased in a force field.
"There is little wonder that you were banished," he addressed the wraith.
"I have gained true immortality, true power."
"Can you feel? Eat? Dream? You are already dead." Harry would have attacked him, but his hand device alerted him that his ship would soon come under attack. With no time to waste, Harry disappeared back to his ship.
!
Goa'uld technology would not allow a cloak to be used with the hyperdrive running, hence a cargo ship would have to cloak immediately after exiting hyperspace to try to evade detection. On the outskirts of Revanna's solar system, Daniel and Jacob's ships came out of hyperspace. Daniel brought his right underneath Jacob's and activated his cloak. Jacob would then use his own ship to carry both ships on the quick trip to Revanna.
"I'm getting an alert from the surface," said Jacob over the ship's speakers.
"What does it say?"
"The base has been compromised. Assume no survivors."
Daniel paused. "I've learned to do the opposite, actually."
"I want to go get my daughter too, but there's no way of even knowing where anyone is, if there are any survivors," said Jacob.
"Is there any way for them to send us a signal?" asked Daniel.
"The signal that we're getting means that the main base communications terminal is down," said Jacob. "They'd have to alter one of the alerting devices."
"So we wait for them to do that."
!
Ironically, it was Anubis' new shield technology that saved him from the onslaught of fire. Harry returned fire, his weapons enhanced with naquadria. His plasma turrets rained down incredible power but the ion cannon truly held a massive force, making perfect white light slam into the Ha'tak. Small explosions began to appear around the mothership behind it's shield.
Harry's ship wasn't doing very well either, as he did his best to out maneuver the far larger ship. He was getting in far more shots, but the bolts of plasma being shot at his ship were nearly a fifth of it's size. One of the power conduits behind him exploded, temporarily taking out his sub-light engines. He became a sitting duck. Not wanting to give up, Harry kept up his barrage on the Ha'tak. Two blasts made it through the mammoth ship's shields, one winged a non-vital corner of the ship, but the other made a direct hit into the side of the ship.
The explosion destroyed a large part of the ship, effectively neutralizing it, but the ship did not explode. Harry stopped firing, considering raiding the ship. His planning was interrupted though when another Ha'tak dropped out of hyperspace and locked it's weapons onto him.
"Well, shoot," he said out loud. Targeting the base below him, Harry figured that he could destroy Anubis while he had the chance. Two blasts from his ion cannon raced down to the planet, but not soon enough. The beam of a ring transporter reached up to the Ha'tak and presumably delivered the former system lord unto its safety. Knowing the better part of valor, Harry jumped his ship into hyperspace as the Ha'tak fired upon him. He had a report to give in person.
!
"The signal has changed," Selmak called over the comm.
"What is it now?"
"Morse code, it's an SOS," answered Jacob.
"Well that's either Jack or Sam," said Daniel, knowing that it was wishful thinking. Knowing that any member of SG-17 could have sent it.
"Or both," said Jacob, sharing his optimism. "I'm sending you the location now. Remember the plan."
Jacob's hyperdrive dragged both ships through hyperspace to Revanna, Daniel's ship still cloaked. They arrived in under a minute, Jacob cloaked immediately, but they knew that he would likely be spotted. Jacob followed his exit trajectory to the planet, while Daniel changed direction, making a more direct rout to the sensor array sending out the signal. As they had expected, Jacob's ship was detected as it passed through the atmosphere, and soon he was being chased by death gliders.
Daniel found the nearest place to land near the sensor array and set down. He exited, hoping that he would find all of his friends alive. He ran towards the coordinates he had passed over on his descent. He was relieved to see the rest of his team there with Lieutenant Elliot, who was lying injured on the ground.
"Guys," he addressed the group.
"Daniel," said Jack, "well that was fast."
"Is there anyone else?" he asked.
Sam shook her head morosely. "Except for Lantash, who jumped into Elliot, we're the last ones."
Daniel shook his head. "Well we need to get out of here, I've got a ship a quarter of a mile in that direction," he pointed.
"Where's my dad?" asked Sam.
"He should have crash landed somewhere," said Daniel somewhat flippantly.
"What?!" demanded Sam.
"Don't worry, it's all part of the plan." It's easier to survive a crash landing when you plan for it. Jacob would leave the ship and arrive at a rendezvous point.
The trip back to the Tel'tak was slower because of the Lieutenant, but they made it without incident. More experienced, Teal'c took the helm and took them to the rendezvous coordinates, flying slowly to better avoid detection. Once they had retrieved Jacob, Teal'c took them quickly out of the atmosphere, and escaped into hyperspace.
Sam spoke up. "We need to get Elliot to a Stargate, he won't survive a trip to Earth in a cargo ship."
"Sam," said Elliot. "Major, I will not survive either way."
"No, you can make it," said Sam.
"We may not be able to help you on Earth," said Daniel, "but what about surviving Tok'ra outposts?"
"It is possible, but unlikely," said the Lieutenant.
Teal'c stood up from the helm, the ship on auto-pilot. "Do not the Tollans possess superior healing technology?"
"They have been itching to do us a favor," said Jack.
"We'll have to gate to Earth first," said Sam. "We won't get through their gate without the right signal."
"The closest planet we could put down at is Nerran," said Selmak. "It is but an hours journey away."
"Sounds like a plan then," said Jack.
!
Harry ringed down to Tollana's surface, not feeling up to opening another hyperspace window. He turned to walk to the transport station, when the Stargate activated behind him. The device that controlled the gate's security went from yellow to blue, indicating that it was one of the Tollan's few allies. Were it to stay yellow, the rather ingenious system would forward any matter to another Stargate on an empty planet.
Two people walked through the gate, with a third on a gurney between them. Harry recognized Sam, but not the man standing across from her. He approached the three.
"Sam," he called out, "I didn't expect to see you today." Then he felt the symbiotes. "Goa'uld!" he cried out, taking a step back and raising his hand device.
"Whoa," said Sam, holding up her own hand. "They're Tok'ra, allies. And this one is in need of medical attention.
Intellectually, Harry knew that the Tok'ra were not like the other goa'uld, and were in fact allies in the fight against the goa'uld. It didn't feel like it though. Still, he lowered his hand and gazed at the two mistrustfully.
"Medics will arrive soon," he said as two Tollan guards appeared on the transport station, followed soon by the medics who ran over. The sensors in the field would have alerted them.
"What is his condition?" asked one.
Sam answered him. "He has internal bleeding and a few fractures from being in a cave-in. His Tok'ra symbiote is weak and dying as well."
The other medic attached a device on Elliot's chest, causing him to hover over the bed. The IV bag was grabbed off its hook. The two men took off running, the body easily keeping pace.
"Is he a friend of yours?" asked Harry, noting the man's similar Air Force uniform.
"He's our most recent SG recruit," said Sam. "And, I'm- close to the symbiote."
Harry nodded.
"Anyway," she continued, "I should introduce you to my father, General Jacob Carter, and his symbiote Selmak."
Of course she had told him that her father was Tok'ra, but it had never seemed real. Slowly, he raised his left hand towards the man. Jacob shook it.
"You have good reason to despise and mistrust the goa'uld," said Jacob, "but you will see that we are not like them."
Harry nodded and turned back to Sam, keeping Jacob in the corner of his eye.
"I have disturbing news for the Tollans, but it affects us all. The goa'uld behind the attack on Tollana is Anubis."
"Anubis is dead," said Selmak forcefully.
Harry took a step back and eyed the Tok'ra. "I believed the same, and he may as well be. His body is gone, but the entity that is Anubis still exists."
"This is one tragedy after another," said Jacob, obviously distressed.
"We aren't dead yet," said Harry. "Anubis still has a small power base, and he still got the System Lords to contend with."
"We just killed the System Lords," said Sam softly.
"...All of them?" asked Harry after a moment. "All of the System Lords?"
"Well," said Harry after a moments pause, "bother."
