Odyssey
a Torchwood & Stargate story
by RoadrunnerGER
Disclaimer: I own neither Torchwood nor Stargate.
Summary: Abducted away from Earth and sold into slavery Team Torchwood has to fight for survival. Being left behind Tosh works with the Stargate team, going on a frantic odyssey across the universe in order to save her friends. Crossover, set s2
A/N: Hey! Sorry for the long wait, but real life… you know how it can be. Special thanks to my beta Mandassina, you're a peach. Enjoy!
Chapter 14
Toshiko had to force herself not to twirl her hair around her finger nervously. General O'Neill had shown her to the board room that was right next to his office and asked her to wait there, so she had been able to take a short break to collect her thoughts. She was under the impression that General O'Neill needed the moment alone in his office as much as she did.
What happens now? she wondered. The General didn't give away what he was thinking. There'll be a meeting. Okay. But what next?
She believed that the meeting with the team leaders would decide their course of action. And there would be a course of action. As President Hayes, as Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces, had supported her idea it was more than likely that the Air Force would go along with her suggestions… unless the team had a better idea.
Where are my teammates now? How are they?
The uncertainty ate away at Toshiko. She missed her friends.
Leaning back against the high backrest of the office chair she granted herself a few minutes' rest. When she closed her eyes, though, she was back on the beach, hearing Jack's shouts and seeing the flash of light. She did not even see them go down. She was running and when she turned back to them they were gone.
Where did they take you? Are you all right?
Even after everything she had seen and done since she joined Torchwood she found it difficult to imagine where her teammates could be. There had to be a big ship of course. The Tebr'ox would not just put them into a cabin on board that much was clear as well. They had taken several hundred humans from all over the world and had to have somewhere on their ship to keep them locked up.
I guess it's comparable to a prison facility, she imagined. It hurt her to envisage her beloved friends behind locked doors. Are they being treated well? Do they have enough to eat? Can they sleep?
Before she could work herself into a hopeless state she was startled out of her musings by the arrival of two soldiers. Toshiko looked up. She did not know them. They nodded a greeting at her when they sat down at the table. Toshiko could not help but stare at first when another man came in. His skin was a dark milk chocolate brown. Short black hair curled on his head. What fascinated Toshiko was a golden tattoo on his forehead that was one of his most prominent features. It was an oval with a waved line in the centre that reminded her of a snake. Having read that the Stargate was first discovered and unearthed at Giza, Toshiko suspected that the tattoo might have something to do with Egyptian mythology.
Right after the man with the golden tattoo a guy with sand coloured hair entered the room hurriedly, crossed the distance to the table while juggling with some books he carried, and dropped his load on the tabletop. He tried to return order to the books before looking around, hectically. Spotting Toshiko he said with a nod, "Dr. Daniel Jackson."
"Dr. Toshiko Sato," she replied and responded to his polite and somewhat nervous smile.
He looked around when another person stepped through the doorway and came over to him.
"Hey, Sam," he greeted her. "How are things going on Atlantis?"
"We're fine, Daniel," she assured him. "Thank you."
"You know why we're here?"
"Not yet, no," the blonde woman replied.
She's wearing a uniform, Toshiko thought, so she holds a military rank as well. Jackson is a civilian. I remember that he deciphered the workings of the Stargate.
"Stop thanking me, or I'll uninvite you both," General O'Neill argued with two men who followed him inside. "Sit down! Before I change my mind!"
He stopped at the head of the table but did not sit down yet, waiting for the other two to find a place.
Toshiko eyed them intently. The one who had argued with O'Neill was good looking, dark-haired, average. The other man wore strange clothes and hidden weapons if she was not mistaken. His dark brown hair flooded down on his shoulders in finger thick braids.
"Okay, now that we're all here," General O'Neill started, "let me tell you why I called this meeting."
"Good idea, sir," one of the soldiers said, smirking. They all knew that riding a desk still was new to O'Neill.
"First let me introduce…"
"Dr. Toshiko Sato!" Dr. Jackson interrupted as if he had just had an epiphany. "I knew I recognized you!"
"Daniel," General O'Neill tried to cut in gently.
"I read your article last year on the application of advanced heuristics in computer-assisted translation of non-orthographic writing systems," the academic babbled on. "That was brilliant work!"
"Daniel." The General's voice was a little firmer this time.
"The way you extrapolated from Japanese kanji to other character-based writing and different glyph-writing systems absolutely blew me away. You made it seem almost simple. I've been wanting to ask you, have you found a way to get your program to account for idiomatic expressions and concepts that don't exist in…"
"Daniel!"
"What?"
This time the general just rolled his eyes and gave an exasperated sigh.
"Oh, uh, sorry," Daniel apologized meekly. Looking at Toshiko, he said, "I hope we get a chance to talk later." Turning to the general, he smiled and asked, "You were saying?"
"I was saying," the general finally continued sarcastically, "Dr. Sato is a technician and computer expert with the Torchwood Institute…" He looked at her as if asking for reassurance that he got it right and Toshiko nodded. "She is here because her Cardiff branch discovered an alien threat that has to be investigated and what, if any, actions need to be taken. Dr. Sato, if you would please explain to us what you discovered?"
"With all due respect, sir, maybe we should first introduce ourselves?" the woman in uniform rushed to say. She nodded at Toshiko. "Colonel Samantha Carter, head of the Atlantis expedition."
"Teal'c of Chulak," the Jaffa simply said.
"Daniel Jackson," the Egyptologist repeated his earlier introduction.
"Major Griff, leader of SG-2," the soldier who had teased O'Neill said.
"Major Evan Lorne, leader of SG-11," the man sitting beside him said flatly.
"Colonel John Sheppard, commander of the Atlantis military contingent," the soldier who came in with General O'Neill introduced himself.
"Ronon Dex of Sateda," the man with the dreadlocks said.
Toshiko looked at each of them again, this time with wonder. Some of the names sounded rather exotic. Before she could ask anything, though, General O'Neill chimed in.
"I'm sure you're burning with questions, Dr. Sato," he said, "but let's hear why you're here first."
"Okay," she murmured and tried to find the right way to tell her tale. This time she was even more nervous because she knew nothing about those people except their names. They all knew about the existence of aliens, though, even travels to distant worlds. They should be open minded enough not to dismiss her request out of hand.
"Well, two days ago our team registered emissions of alien origin above Cardiff and went out to investigate. At first there was nothing to see, but then ships uncloaked. I have to admit that I was unable to track how they got down on the beach, but they attacked us. Two members of our team were taken there, and later I discovered two others were taken at the park, defending the people there.
"When I returned to our base I found out that more people were missing and when a UNIT contact helped me to get in touch with American intelligence I learned that we're talking about hundreds of abducted humans."
"You mean to say that those aliens were not only in Cardiff but also on other continents, taking people?" Daniel Jackson threw in.
"Yes."
"About how many people are we talking?" Col. Carter wanted to know.
"We can't tell for sure right now, but several hundreds went missing during the last week," Toshiko explained. "The reports went along with reports of UFO sightings."
"It is unlike the Goa'uld to abduct single individuals," Teal'c said. "They prefer to subdue and enslave the entire planet."
"We're not talking about Goa'uld," Gen. O'Neill replied in Toshiko's stead. "What did you call them?"
"With the help of our database I could identify the invaders as Tebr'ox," Toshiko told him.
"And who are these Tebr'ox?" Daniel asked.
"If I got it right they are space nomads."
Silence met Toshiko's statement. While O'Neill watched his co-workers Daniel just stared at Toshiko with astonishment. Carter was scribbling on her notepad. The others were just plain stunned.
"That means they could be anywhere," Ronon Dex finally stated.
"Anywhere on their way to a slave market," Toshiko said.
"A needle in a haystack," Sheppard remarked.
"Slave market?" Major Griff queried. "You really think they want to sell them?"
"Some branches of their tribe are said to be slave traders," Toshiko explained. "Taking that into consideration, what else would they need humans for?"
"Sounds logical," Sheppard shrugged.
"Indeed."
"And you came here why?" Major Lorne asked.
Toshiko swallowed dryly. "To ask your help finding them."
Once more silence fell over the board room. This time it was not surprise that rendered them silent but confusion, about if or how they could be any help.
"Please don't get me wrong, Dr. Sato," Major Lorne spoke up. "I can imagine that your colleagues are important to you, so I won't diminish your loss, but does it justify such a big operation?"
"You didn't listen, Lorne," Griff said. "There are several hundred people missing. Do you want to abandon them to their fates?"
"I didn't say that," Lorne defended himself. "But… space nomads? How do you expect to find them?"
"By finding that slave market," Daniel cut in.
"Oh, really?"
"Yes. I have an idea how to find it," the archaeologist confirmed.
"Great!" O'Neill cheered wryly. "Enlighten us."
"We'll have to find Vala," Daniel told him.
"Vala?" Carter echoed, surprised. "That will be just as difficult. And even if we can find her, what makes you think she would help us? She stole our ship after all. She took you hostage."
"And shot me," Daniel added sourly. "But she's a con artist. If someone knows where you can find that market it's her."
"And how do we find her?"
"She'd find us," Daniel shrugged. "Leak the information that there's naquadah to steal and she'll show up in no time."
"That's your plan?" O'Neill gasped. "Next idea, please."
"We could contact Thor and Selmak and see if they know the Tebr'ox," Carter suggested.
"I don't think that Bra'tak or Ishta know about the slave market," Teal'c said. "The Goa'uld would never tolerate something like that on their territory."
"True," Daniel agreed.
Toshiko followed the discussion with wonder. From the file the Lone Gunmen had given her she knew that the Stargate Command had achieved interstellar travel with the help of the ancient device called Stargate that was discovered near Giza. What she did not know was how exactly it worked and how extensively it was used. Of course the Air Force kept any information about it under wraps so that most of what the Lone Gunmen had were rumours and educated guesses.
Now Toshiko realized that the organization had to be much bigger, the connections much wider spread, than she had thought. Griff and Lorne had introduced themselves as leaders of SG-2 and SG-11. If those were the designations of their teams then Stargate Command was much busier than Toshiko had imagined. The names the officers used were all unfamiliar to her, but she did realize that Chulak was not a place on Earth. It had to be another planet. The same certainly applied to Sateda. Who were the Goa'uld? And what did they mean when they talked about Atlantis?
"I really think that finding Vala is our best option right now," Toshiko heard Daniel say.
"And I really think that's a bad idea, Daniel," O'Neill told him for the umpteenth time. "Carter! How about some support here?"
"Sir, you may not like it, but I think that Daniel's idea is promising. We should take it into consideration if our allies can't tell us more about the Tebr'ox."
"Actually I meant that you should support me," O'Neill as good as pouted.
Toshiko was surprised by the seemingly informal way of the general handling the meeting.
"Sorry, sir," Carter said. "But I actually see finding Vala Mal Doran as an option should we run out of other ideas."
All of a sudden a red light beside the door started to flash and an alarm blared. Toshiko looked at surprised faces around her and then O'Neill, Carter, Teal'c, and Daniel were the first to storm out of the board room, called away by the announcement, "Unscheduled off-world activation!"
tbc…