A Rose by Any Other Name
Chapter Four: A Madhouse
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With operation Cell Phone a big success, Vala and Rose sound asleep again, the boys went to work on executing the remainder of their plan then went off to bed feeling satisfied that 1. They'd successfully altered the phone 2. They had their next assignments mapped out and 3. SG1 was probably safe, at least for now.
The following morning Jake carefully carried the tray with a cup of coffee and a bowl of sloshing cereal into the bedroom. Setting the tray precariously on the night stand, he held it steady with one hand and placed the phone back where it had been with the other one.
He looked back at the door and nodded to the three standing there. Danny took Rose off and Eli gave Jake the thumbs up signal and dashed off.
"Mom?"
"Hmm?"
"I brought you breakfast."
Vala rolled over and pushed herself up with a smile. "Where's Rose?"
"Danny and Eli are getting her dressed."
Jake placed the tray across his mother's lap and grinned nervously. When the cell phone rang he looked at it with trepidation - staring wide eyed.
Taking the phone in hand Vala didn't even look at the screen. "Vala." She answered flipping the phone open. "What? I can't hear you." She looked at Jake, "Something's wrong with the phone."
"Oh." Jake looked away.
"What, who? Sergeant who? Email? Yes. Thank you Sergeant." She ended the call and studied the phone perplexed then smiled up at Jake. "You brought me breakfast in bed." Setting the tray aside she started to get up, "I have to check my email."
"I'll bring you your lap top, Mom, just relax."
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The puddle jumper came to a quiet landing in a clearing about three clicks east of the village and two clicks west from the obelisk where the beam originated.
"Okay kids, here's how it's gonna play. Me, Daniel and Teal'c are heading for the village, Bowser and Colonel Brock are going for the obelisk, Lt. Spencer and Major Whitman will stay with the jumper. Heads up - weapons primed guys."
Spencer and Whitman didn't look too happy being stuck on guard duty, while JoJo Bowser and SG-8's CO, Rachel Brock, all but scampered off towards the obelisk.
Just before they reached the village, SG1 found themselves surrounded by club, axe and pitchfork wielding villagers.
"You're so good at this, Mitchell, you'll go down in SGC history as the CO with the most captures by pick axe, good job!" Daniel chuckled, stepped forward and recited the age old 'peaceful explores' bit in rote.
After five languages the villagers continued to stare without answers, other than the word Jaffa.
Daniel and Mitchell both held out their hands emphatically shaking their heads and trying every No they could come up with. The mob inched towards them, fear in their eyes. Finally, Teal'c lifted his T-shirt to reveal the closed pouch and he smiled and bowed. Murmurs went around the group as they backed off a bit.
The mob leader stepped forward as the others stepped back. "You say you come in peace? Who is this Jaffa without a symbiote? What is your purpose here?"
Mitchell recited the long ago freed Jaffa speech, the death of the System Lords bit, and the we're from planet Earth rhetoric. That got them some awed responses, although the farm tools raised as the mob surrounded SG1.
"Just like old times." Mitchell grinned at the hulking men behind them. A poke with a pitchfork in his back got him stumbling forward with Teal'c and Daniel right behind him.
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Complete confusion covered Vala's face as she reread the last line of the latest email. …and after that little incident last night Sam said she did NOT teach you, however she was quite impressed - Jack.
What incident? – Vala
An hour later she got the reply. Ha ha. Ya know if you wanted to keep it a big secret you shouldn't have used your own computer to hack into the base's - Jack
Oh, that incident. Right – Vala. Vala wandered down the hall to the boy's room and stood leaning on the door frame, arms crossed. Rose was on the floor rubbing Play Dough into the rug, the boys playing some computerized game.
"Eli?"
All three looked up and the guilt and fear in their eyes confirmed her suspicion. "Do you think you can fix my phone?"
Relief was evident as a smiling Eli came forward and took the cell phone from Vala. "Sure Mrs. J, I can fix it."
"I'm sure you can, how'd you do it?"
Only Eli's eyes lifted from reprogramming the cell phone. "I…ah…I just disabled the caller ID, I …ah…I was practicing. I'm really sorry, I meant to fix it back. Really."
"Not the phone, how did you manage to hack into the base?"
Jake and Danny ducked their heads and pretend to continue their game as Eli sat dejected on the side of the bed. "We had to know, Mrs. J, really we did."
"Will you please stop calling me that? My name is Vala. Can you do it again?"
"What!?"
"Don't say it like that, you sound like Jack."
"Sorry, here, the phone's all fixed."
"Can you?"
"I think they changed the codes."
"And."
"And it could take a while, but I think I know what to do, we might need Ian."
"Ian?"
"Yeah, he's got some codes of his dads."
"Mitchell's codes? Good. Can we keep your father from tracing it back to us?"
"We could use his laptop. It's at the house. I could tell him I need some stuff for the weekend and go and get it."
"Danny, get Rose, Jake, get her bag ready and a sippy cup of juice, maybe some animal crackers and don't forget the wipes. I'll meet you at the door in five minutes. I'll call Carolyn and see if the boys can stay here tonight. Her mother's there. I'm sure they'd appreciate the peace and quiet."
When Vala left, Eli turned to Danny and Jake. "You're mom is so cool!"
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When Daniel was returned to the locked room after being questioned he shook his head in amazement. "Holy…" He muttered trailing off.
"Damn it, Jackson, quit doin' that!"
"What?"
"Sayin' 'holy' then never finishin' it. You're drivin' me nuts." Mitchell paced insistently.
"You don't do confinement well do you Mitchell?"
"He does not." Teal'c commented and turned away casually resting his hands behind his back.
Daniel and Mitchell exchanged rolled eyes and head shakes then Daniel continued. "They know nothing about any beam, any technology, any weapons. The older ones told stories of a ring that brought the old evil gods but no one has seen it and they consider it a myth. They all can recite the Jaffa stories of murder and mayhem, but it's been years since any have been here. However, one old woman mentioned Astria Porta and the tale of benevolent gods burying it."
"A missing Stargate, ancient Asgard technology, a Mothership destroying beam and a bunch of pitchforks. Nice planet. How about us? Any idea what they plan on doin'?"
"Not a clue." Daniel sat on a rickety chair, took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
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Colonel Brock scanned the surrounding area, weapon at ready, while Lt. Bowser studied the obelisk. "We've got something here. Something big. I know what happened." JoJo shook her finger at the stone structure. "I've seen this before. Well, not actually seen one but I've read about it. But this one's a twofer."
"Twofer?" Rachel turned around and frowned at the Lieutenant.
"Yeah. It has a defensive mechanism, but it's also programmed to extract Jaffa or Goa'uld and trap them somewhere, Labyrinth I think. I need to talk to Daniel. He'd remember from an SG1 mission long time ago. This is great. I think our team and the Jaffa might still be alive." JoJo hit the com button.
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Teal'c moved to the door of the room listening intently.
"I heard that. It's the radio." Mitchell moved beside the Jaffa, followed by Daniel and all three pressed an ear to the door.
"It is Lt. Bowser, she is reporting something to DanielJackson."
Mitchell repeated what he heard. "Obelisk is…, Alive…, I can't make it out. Teal'c?"
"Thor's Hammer, extraction mechanism, and something about the destructive beam." Teal'c commented turning to Daniel.
"Thor's Hammer! Holy … buckets." Daniel began beating on the door and yelling for their axe wielding guard.
It took nearly twenty minutes for the town counsel to show up, fifty minutes to convince them of what they knew and to get themselves released, sixteen minutes to talk them into releasing SG-14 and the most of the Jaffa crew, an hour and twenty minutes to free the Jaffa from the labyrinth, ten minutes to drag Lt. Bowser away from her study of the obelisk, and thirty minutes to locate the buried Stargate that was not buried, but surrounded by a shield, taking twenty more minutes to free it up, ten more to get a crew on the jumper, and ten seconds to punch in an IDC code.
Ah, at last they were home to much back slapping and congratulations. Mitchell dialed Carolyn immediately, but Daniel opted to surprise Vala and left hastily.
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Rose was napping on the couch when Daniel came into the quiet room. Sitting by her he smoothed the hair from her face and kissed her forehead. Her eyes popped open and she appeared to be just short of squalling when she set her sight on her father. Rose bounded up and into his arms. Picking her up, Daniel hugged her burying his head in the small crook of her neck. He felt her tiny hands patting him on the back and it nearly brought tears to his eyes.
"Hey, Darling. Where's mom and the boys?"
"Hacking up the computa with Eli, Dwake and Ian."
"What?" He drew back and grinned at his mischievous and often difficult to understand little fairy daughter.
"Eli and Ian are hacking Uncle Jack's computa on your bed. Mommie says they're the best damned little spies in the whole world, including the …pega…pegur…the peggy galaxica."
"Pegasus?"
"Yep. Dat's it." Rose hugged his neck and kissed his cheek. "I miss-ed you daddy."
"I missed you too, Darling." With Rose perched on one hip Daniel approached the bedroom door trying to figure out the information Rose had scrambled.
"No, not the data base, try to get into your dad's or mom's email, there might be something there." Vala's nervousness was apparent to Daniel who stood in the open door way.
"Mrs. J…ah, Ms. Vala, I think we can get more up to date data with …." Eli was interrupted by Vala's anxious chatter.
"Eli! The emails! And Cameron's too, and check for any…There! There, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. They've been captured! JoJo's found… Eli! Bring that back up; why'd you close it?" Vala was nearly in a panic and didn't even notice when Danny and Jake flew off the bed. Eli O'Neill and Ian Mitchell just stared at the man in the doorway, and Drake Mitchell leaned closer to the screen trying to find the site Eli had just closed while Vala stared in tears at the computer.
"Daddy!" Both Danny and Jake cried out nearly knocking him down as they rushed to hug him.
"Yes, yes, I'm trying to find out more about him. I'm sure he's fine, really. He has to be fine." Vala sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "Eli…" Vala turned to find the boy and practically fainted at the sight of Daniel standing in the doorway with his children draped around him.
Hands steepled over her nose and mouth Vala sobbed, tears running at full blast. She couldn't move. He was here. Her Daniel was here!
Putting Rose down, Daniel cocked his head indicating for everyone to clear out. They scampered away quickly. Daniel closed and locked the door and Vala was still frozen to her spot as he slowly approached her.
In the kitchen, Danny searched for food, "We're in trouble."
Jake pouted miserably. "Big trouble.
Drake turned to Ian for confirmation. "Like killin' big trouble?"
"Oh yeah, big trouble, right Eli?" Ian crossed his arms and leaned against the counter.
"Yeah, sureyabetcha we are. Honkin' big trouble. We're dead."
Rose stood in the middle of the kitchen grinning from ear to ear, "Can I have a peanut butter, jelly and ice cream samich?"