Stargate Command
Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado
Briefing Room
O'Neill sat in his position at the head of the table and absently drummed his fingers on the table. He felt extremely tired, a feeling he experienced more often these days. He was waiting on Carter to show up to get the meeting started. His stomach growled and he realized that he hadn't eaten in over twelve hours. Finally, Carter arrived, apologized for the delay and took a seat next to Teal'c. O'Neill quietly sighed in resignation and decided it was time.
"Ok Carter," he said. "Where do we stand?"
She took a minute and thought her answer through before responding. "Well, without the Tok'ras' assistance, we are pretty much on our own. The Jaffa aren't going to help, especially with their current leadership."
"What about the Asgard?" Jackson asked.
O'Neill shook his head. "Tried contacting them, but they're as elusive as ever. Never around when you really need them."
"And none of our other allies are either capable or willing to take on the Be'nox. It doesn't look very good sir," Carter said grimly. "The Be'noxs' weapons are extremely powerful, and nothing we have seems to be effective against them. Our most advanced weapon, the P.A.C., is virtually useless against their shielding technology."
"Wait a minute," Jackson interrupted. "What exactly is the P.A.C.?"
"The Particle Accelerator Cannon," Carter explained, citing information directly from her memory. "The plans for the P.A.C. began when Dr. Felger unsuccessfully tried to produce a laser weapon for the X-303's. The main problem with his design, amongst other things, was that he made it far too small. The Air Force then took his basic plans and enlarged and enhanced them to form the P.A.C. While the only working copy is on the Aeneas, we are trying to develop a smaller version of it to be placed on our prototype X-401's. Basically, the P.A.C. works by magnetically accelerating charged particles until they reach near light speed. It then releases the stream at an enemy with devastating effect. Field tests have shown that one shot from a P.A.C. is enough to take down the shields of an average Go'ald Ha'tak vessel." Carter smiled slightly when O'Neill whistled at the PAC's power, then continued with her response. "Unfortunately, as we all saw, the P.A.C. had no effect on the Be'nox ship."
A silence hung in the room, which Jackson uneasily broke. "What did the president have to say about it?"
O'Neill clasped his hands together and rested them on the table. "Haven't spoken to him yet." Another half-truth, he thought angrily to himself, recalling his conversation with the Vice-president.
"Well, what are we going to do?" Jackson asked to no one in particular.
"Our only hope is to try to get something out of Aki Rai," Carter said resignedly. "Maybe convince him to work with us?"
"Considering our past success, I doubt this outcome, Colonel Carter," said Teal'c as he rested his folded hands on the table.
"Teal'c is right," O'Neill said, an idea already forming in his mind. "I think it's time we tried a different approach."
Having said this, O'Neill suddenly got up and left the room. Teal'c immediately followed, already knowing what it was that his old friend had in mind. Jackson and Carter just looked at each other helplessly and followed them.
Prison Room
Aki Rai laid still on the table to which he was imprisoned for several days, and tried to keep his mind calm, but was having difficulty. His stomach growled hungrily, for the foul human food he was forced to consume was not adequate enough to sustain his hosts body. Much to his chagrin, and to a small extent fear, Aki was starting to lose his control on his hosts mind. The clarity of his thoughts, along with that of his brethren, was tainted by the faint thoughts of the host body. Although he could not find a reason for this occurrence, he knew that if he was kept here too long, the situation would deteriorate to a point where he would no longer be able to exercise control on the host.
This was a disturbing thought for the Be'nox, for he didn't want to imagine what would happen when the Nek'far regained control. In order to fully extrapolate the benefits of the host/symbiot relation, the Nek'far warrior hosts are genetically designed to have enhanced strength, endurance, and, to some degree, intellect. This was done so that the Be'nox symbiot could tap into the hosts' battlefield expertise. When under the control of a Be'nox, the Nek'fars' mind is placed into a state of semi-consciousness, in order to prevent it from resisting the Be'nox symbiot. But now, due to Aki's inability to have control, the hosts' mind was beginning to awaken. When it becomes fully awake, the Nek'far will realize the situation it is under, and cooperate with the human scum, who no doubt will use it to access Akis' memories and thoughts. Lord Lek Nais' plan would be completely lost if that were to happen. He knew that he could not allow that to happen. There must be something that he could do to prevent this.
Just then, the Tau'ri called O'Neill and the Jaffa Teal'c suddenly burst into the room, momentarily surprising Aki. They briskly walked right up to Aki and O'Neill pointed a ballistic weapon up to his head. The other Tau'ri, Jackson and Carter, walked in at that moment and stood behind the other two.
"Ok, you piece of dirt," O'Neill said in a stressed out voice. "If you don't tell us what we want to know, you're dead."
Aki Rai tried to keep his cool while his mind sluggishly raced in circles. Was the human serious, or was this just a ploy? One look at the Tau'ri's face was enough to convince him that the human was dead serious. If he didn't talk he would be dead, but if he answered their questions, then the entire plan may be jeopardized. But he would have to be alive to carry out his mission, which he needed to do so soon. Aki decided his only course of action was to do as the human said.
"Alright," Aki Rai said hastily. "I will answer your questions."
"Good," O'Neill said, hatred dripping from his voice. "Carter?"
"Ok. Tell us the purpose of the Be'nox…"
But she never got to finish. With a flash, the four humans were engulfed in white and disappeared from the room. With a start, Aki realized what had occurred, and suddenly understood that his predicament had taken an extreme turn for the worse.