A/N: Can't write this week. Stupid 200 lines of ancient Greek text that are supposed to be a comedy, but don't read as such. I hope you like this chapter!
Reviews are welcome!
Chapter 22 – Preparations
"Tarin, what is the condition of the shelters, the storage facilities and the underground tunnels?"
"My lord, the scouts have returned just yet with good news. The underground tunnels underneath the city are in perfect condition. The storage facility is still secure and the shelters are deep underground, safe from bombardment. Everything is good."
"That is great news. Now I must take a little bit of revenge on Anubis." Minos said.
"Are you going to contact the Tauri?"
"Yep. I probably will. Let's see if they want to come too."
"Good luck, My lord."
"Thank you."
Minos left the palace, clad in the usual robes that wouldn't be noticed in the usual jaffa societies. He walked over the market towards the gate, enjoying the scents and sounds of Avalon. He truly felt at home on the desert planet, between the people he trusted and the buildings he had helped build. It had been a long time since Atlantis had left before he had felt as comfortable on a planet as on Avalon.
Now he was going to contact them by using their device, the IDC. It was quite ingenious that they had succeeded in building a nigh impenetrable barrier in front of their gate. He stopped musing in himself as he reached the gate, and dialled it. He typed in the code on the IDC thingie, and he got a confirmation that it was safe to come through.
"Greeting, Minos." Hammond said through the intercom of the gate room as Minos came walking in.
"Hello, General." Minos greeted.
"Would you be slightly interested in raiding one of Anubis' strongholds? Maybe two?" Minos said.
"Uhm, yes. But that mostly depends on what cost. Are there any grave dangers?"
"Well, if there are jaffa guarding the gates I can take them out quickly, but if there are Kull warriors there we might need the new anti-armour gun."
"So you want to test it in a mission?" Hammond asked.
"Yes, but that's not the main reason. I mainly wanted to take revenge on Anubis for attacking Avalon."
"And what would happen with the supplies you steal?" Hammond asked.
"I'd say split them evenly? I reckon there are several Ha'taks in orbit around both planets, so maybe we could rob one of those. Or more, if we're lucky."
"Rob a Ha'tak from Anubis?" Hammond said, a bit amazed.
"Yep. And if we're even luckier I can load it full with all kinds of useful supplies. Weapons, Naquadah, armour, all that kinds of stuff."
"I must contact my superiors with this offer."
"OK. I'll go and ... do ... something. Bye General."
"Goodbye Minos."
Minos left the conference room that bordered Hammonds office. He walked down the stairs and into the many corridors of the SGC. Normal people would get lost here, but Minos had an perfect sense of direction and he only very rarely got lost somewhere.
He reached Daniels lab a few minutes later.
"Dammit." Daniel talked to himself. "Why can't I figure out what it says! Stupid vase!" Daniel said angrily.
"Need help?" Minos asked.
"Minos. I didn't know you were back."
"I wasn't until a few minutes ago. Hammond is on the phone with his superiors to talk about a new mission I proposed."
"New mission?" Daniel said questioningly.
"If it works we'll rob Anubis of several ha'taks and a lot of other things."
"Sounds interesting. But can you help me with the translation?" Daniel asked.
"Yep. It's Ancient, but a really old dialect. And with really old, I mean seriously old. It says... let me see... Uhm. It says: 'The future doesn't pass. And the past won't overtake the present.' Can that be correct?"
"Well, it does fit the rest of the text. I think it is correct. Thanks for helping out, Minos."
"No problem."
Minos decided that what Daniel was currently doing was even more boring than walking the halls for no reason. So, he decided to see what Sam was doing. He arrived in Sam's lab minutes later, only to find that it was empty.
"Where's Sam?" Minos said to himself. He decided to go where he guessed Sam was, and he ended up in the room where he had constructed his crossbow yesterday. She was there, sitting half over one of the numerous technical things in the room. He entered the room, and he discovered that she wasn't sitting half over the technical thing. She was sleeping.
"Sam?" Minos said.
"Sam?" He repeated, this time a bit louder, and he poked her into her shoulder.
Only a small 'huuh' sound came and Sam remained fast asleep.
"Ok. Let's go see someone who is awake." Minos thought by himself.
Minos left the room Sam was sleeping in, and he decided that finding O'Neill would be the next best option. Since he didn't exactly know where O'Neills office was, he decided to go with his gut and just walk towards the gym.
"Hi, O'Neill. What cha doing?" Minos asked as he saw O'Neill standing in the doorway to the gym.
"Hey, Minos. I'm watching Teal'c fighting against the new recruits. I didn't know you were back."
"I was bored, so I decided that I could just as well take a little bit revenge on Anubis. And since fun is better if you're with more, I came here to see if you wanted to join in."
"Did you talk to Hammond about this?"
"Yep. He was calling with his superiors when I left. I hope you can come."
"Well, that depends on their decision. What would be in it for us if we won?"
"A ha'tak, and if we're lucky a shitload of other supplies."
"Shitload? I didn't know they had that word on Avalon too."
"They don't. But I've been to Earth often enough to know a little bit of the slang you use."
"How often?"
"Several times over the last century?" Minos suggested with a grin.
"How'd you come here? We didn't discover the gate until a few years ago."
"There are other ways to come where you want to go."
"Which are those?"
"You'd have to find out for yourself. But I'll give you a hint. It's old. Older than you, but not older than me."
"Aww, come on. That is almost everything!"
"It's even older than Selmak"
"And that would be how many years exactly?"
"Just over two-thousand. But don't tell her you got that from me. She'd kill me if she found out you know how old she is."
"Ok, that's finally helping me a bit. Are you gonna give more hints?"
"Nope. Otherwise I'll spoil all the fun."
"aww, come on."
"No. By the way, if you've lost Carter, she's sleeping somewhere in one of the storage rooms."
"What? Carter and sleeping?"
"I'm guessing she worked through the night. She fell asleep on whatever she was working on."
"Dammit! I ordered her to go to bed last night! I'll go and check up on her."
"Bye, Colonel." Minos said as he kept watching Teal'c teaching the new recruits.
Minos was interested by the fighting style and moves Teal'c taught the new recruits. It was a style which formed a bit of a cross-over between Earth fighting styles and Jaffa moves. Teal'c moved very fast for a man his size, and Minos could clearly see the effects of the hard Jaffa training. The new recruits were no match for Teal'c in a real fight, but it wasn't in his intentions to hurt them. He merely wanted to teach them what they did wrong.
After a few minutes of watching, Minos grew bored and he decided to see if O'Neill was screaming at Carter for ignoring his orders and sleeping during work-time. He arrived at Carter's lab, where he figured she would be.
"Carter, when I say you must go to sleep, I mean as soon as possible, not ten hours later, ok?" O'Neill yelled to Carter after he had awakened her from her sleep on the cushion of a block note.
"Sorry sir. It won't happen again." Carter said hastily.
"Carter, it's not that you don't work harder than everyone else, but if you're supposed to be awake but you are actually sleeping, who are we gonna call if something doesn't work?"
"A technician?" Minos answered O'Neills question.
"Minos! Hi. I didn't know you were back already." Carter said. "How long have you been back?"
"Since around you started sleeping on the block note. That would be half an hour now I think."
"What brings you here?" Carter asked, steering the discussion away from her 'sleeping-during-work'-sermon from O'Neill.
"I was bored, so I asked Hammond if it was ok if you joined me in taking a little bit of revenge on Anubis. Hammond was talking to his superiors when I left his office, and I hope he's finished now."
"Taking revenge on Anubis does sound interesting. What did you have in mind?" Carter asked.
"I know where two of his strongholds are. I know one of them, because I have been there before. There have always been Goa'uld shipyards there, so my guess is that they are still there. And where shipyards are, there are Ha'taks to protect them. I will explain more when you get permission to go."
"I hope they give it. But knowing them, it could take a while." Carter said.
"Make that two whiles." O'Neill added. "People in Washington don't tend to be overly quick with those things, especially not with the NID stalling everything as much as possible for Hammond."
"That old and angry guy that was assaulting Hammond when we transported in from Thor's ship, was he from the NID?"
"Yes, Senator Kinsey is from the NID. He's a stupid asshole. He tried to frame us several times, and he has been a gigantic pain in the ass since we started here." O'Neill said.
"As much as I agree with you, Colonel O'Neill, would you please mind to soften your language a bit." Hammond interrupted.
"General! Any good news about the mission?" O'Neill said.
"Well, not as much good news as I had hoped, but you've certainly sparked their interest, Minos, by saying that there might be a ha'tak in this mission."
"What do you mean by that?" Minos asked.
"Well, the message I was sending was being delayed a lot by several unknown people," Hammond paused for what he was implying to clear up, "but when I mentioned that we could get a Goa'uld Ha'tak from Anubis, then everything sped up immediately. I guess the NID still has some reasonable people working for them, though they seem to be spread out thin."
"And what are they going to do? Are they gonna give permission or not?" Minos asked.
"I'm not sure if they will give permission anytime soon. But I am sure that they will want to speak with you in person, Minos, about the mission. They'll most likely question you about what you know of Goa'uld resources. They said that they might have a person close by, and that he could get here soon."
"Would that person happen to be Woolsey?" O'Neill asked.
"My guess is that it is him." Hammond said.
"Who's Woolsey?" Minos asked.
"Mister Woolsey is the puppet from the NID. He's a bit strange, but at least he's honest about most things. That's more than could be said for that ass Kinsey." O'Neill said.
Hammond shot a fake glare at O'Neill to watch his language, but O'Neill pretended he didn't notice it. "Now, Minos, mister Woolsey could be here between ten minutes and an hour. You might want to prepare yourself for an interview with him. He's fair, but he does everything by the book. You could impress him by getting your story straight now. Think of what you want to say and how you could say it best."
"I'll try." Minos said.