Sorry for the delay with this chapter - just been very busy in RL here at Naquadah Mansions.
Chapter 13 Here Comes The Cavalry
While Vala had been busy breaking into Athena's palace, a breach of security on a far different scale was happening across the galaxy near Chulak.
Sam had watched with increasing anxiety as another eight Jaffa beamed onboard in front of her. They had all acknowledged the Colonel gravely before moving away with Teal'c, who led them to who knew where. Sam just didn't want to think about where her friend was stationing all of the warriors.
Bra'tac paused at the entrance to the bridge. "Does something concern you, Colonel Carter?" he asked, calmly.
Sam smiled briefly. "A little. I'm just wondering where all of these Jaffa are hiding."
"I do not believe that they are hiding anywhere – Teal'c is securing them legitimate quarters on this vessel. Which is an impressive one, I must say. And named after Hammond of Texas – a fitting tribute to such a great leader." Bra'tac inclined his head out of respect to General Hammond's memory.
"Yes, of course." Sam smiled too. She found it easy to forget at times about the man whom the great Tau'ri ship was named after, being so bogged down with the logistics of her command. "I think that he'd be proud – of both the ship and how we use it."
"And of it's commander." Bra'tac's gaze was shrewd.
Sam shrugged. "I hope so."
The transport beam zinged again.
"Oh no!" She felt her heart sink, but this time it was just a pile of weapons, ammunition and MRE packs. There was a pause. Sam scratched her head. "Er – Bra'tac? Do you have MRE's down on Chulak?"
"What is an MRE?" the old warrior inquired, interestedly.
Sam pointed. "One of those."
Bra'tac shook his head, before stepping forward and picking one of the sealed packages up. "What is it?" he repeated.
"Food. Well, kind of." Sam pulled her mouth down. "It's meant to be anyway. But – how did they get onto Chulak?"
Another twizzle and flash. More MRE's, three portable Naquadah generators and a pile of tactical vests.
"What on earth – Bra'tac, where is this all coming from?"
The Jaffa leader shrugged, even as he interestedly investigated the equipment in front of him. "It would seem that some of these things have come directly from the SGC - could that be the case, Colonel Carter?"
"But who?" she began, before a horrible thought began to form in her mind. "Oh no – he wouldn't! He couldn't! Could he?"
Zing, flash, fizz.
"Hey Carter! How's it going? Bra'tac – good to see you! You joining this party too?!"
He could indeed. General Jack O'Neill, ex-commander of SG-1, and of the SGC, and very much the husband of Colonel Samantha Carter, stood grinning unrepentantly on the bridge. He raised his eyebrows. "What?"
Sam, for once, was absolutely speechless.
Bra'tac had a wide beam across his face. "O'Neill! It is very good to see you. It has been too long!"
"Too long?" Sam had found her voice. "Too long? He's meant to be – you're meant to be – what did you – I'm beyond furious at you, Jack! Beyond! Way, way way beyond! How did you – how dare you! What are you thinking? And what about JJ? Who's looking after him? What the Holy Hannah do you think you are doing?" She had moved to stand right in front of Jack by this time, and poked him painfully several times on the chest.
"Ow!" The retired General said, trying to look innocent and failing miserably. "Just – just – cut that out Carter!" He grabbed both of her hands as she went for a punch to his chest and pulled her arms down by her sides. His expression softened. "Look – JJ is fine. Cassie is looking after him – you know how those two adore each other. Something big is going down, over with Athena, let's face it, and you need all the help you can get. Plus supplies. And I'll stay up here – I won't go down to fight. I'll be a – interested observer. Sitting up here, with my big, honkin' spaceship."
"My big honkin' spaceship," Sam replied, but relaxed slightly.
Jack tweaked a tiny, lop sided grin at her. His gaze was dark, watchful.
Damn you, thought Sam. Standing there in front of me, looking so – well, hot! There was no denying it – the General was very fit for a man touching sixty years old. "I hate you," Sam whispered, even as she leaned in to give him a peck on the lips.
"I know you do," Jack grinned, uncaring, and kissed her back much harder, one arm slipping behind her back.
"How on earth did you get here?" Sam asked eventually, after she'd prised him regretfully off of herself.
"Wormhole to Chulak," her husband answered, hoisting up his pack. "Managed to talk the President into letting me come as a kind of reconnaissance mission. Gathering intel. Making observations That kind of thing."
"Just being nosey?" Sam grinned.
Jack lifted his eyebrows in a mock-hurt look. "Am I that transparent?"
"Pretty much." His wife turned away and sat down in her chair. "You're incorrigible, sir, you know that?"
"I do. Or I would – if I knew what it meant." Jack patted Bra'tac on the shoulder. "C'mon – let's go and find the ice cream." He led away the now-slightly bewildered looking warrior in the direction of the commissary.
Sam, left behind on the bridge, shook her head in a mixture of wonderment and dismay. She dreaded to think what strings her husband had pulled to get himself sent over to the Hammond. They'd probably all be fired when they returned home! But she couldn't help thinking, as she turned back towards Major Marks and his monitors, that she was glad to have Jack with them.
o – o – o – o – o – o –
Mitchell lay on the floor of Athena's palace throne room. Well, he supposed it was a throne room, although there didn't seem to be a throne anywhere that he could see. In fact, there was nothing inside the room, apart from Charlotte Mayfield aka Athena, plus about twelve guards and his unfortunate self.
The room was long, with rows of slim columns on either side, holding up the curved, golden ceiling. High latticed windows ran along each side of the room, letting in light, and three huge, hanging candlebra were suspended along the middle of the room, for use when it was night. Two low steps, which ran for the width of the room lifted to a small dais at the far end. The whole of the floor and walls were either made or coated with white marble – to make as much use of light as possible, Mitchell supposed. He was glad of it right now – the marble also felt extremely cool. After three turns under Charlotte Mayfield's ribbon device he was sweating pretty profusely. The chill of the old fashioned stonework was an absolute blessing.
The Colonel lay, unmoving, hoping half heartedly that she'd forget he was there if he remained still enough.
The Gou'ald god-turned-priestess was speaking in a low tone with a few of her soldiers who had gathered about her. She'd tried to get Mitchell to reveal how many ships were still in orbit and who else may be on their way. What plans did they have to attack her palace? What weapons did they own? Most of the time she spent laughing at him – the Colonel suspected that she either knew the answers she was wringing out of him, or she didn't care.
Mitchell had managed to make her think he was giving up the intel unwillingly, but all he was doing, more or less, was telling her what she really knew. Yes, they were here to attack the palace, yes – the only weapons they had were on them – no, the only ship they now had that was of any use was the Hammond, which had been attacked and had to flee. Athena seemed to be under the impression that it was her Gou'ald spy who was flying the surviving Tel'tak, up in orbit. Mitchell didn't correct her – the knowledge that Vala and the Alkesh were both very much intact, and the former running amok here in the palace would not go down well, he suspected.
Still, he thought dreamily, as Athena turned to look speculatively at him, it'll probably go best for us all if she don't carry on with that ribbon device too much longer. I'll either spill the beans about the Princess, or my brain'll melt. Maybe both.
Mitchell sighed quietly. C'mon Sam – where are you?
Four of Athena's warriors approached him, all looking distinctly grim faced.
"Hey guys," he waved weakly from where he lay on the floor. "How's it going?"
"Colonel Mitchell," Athena called from where she remained, standing on the dais. "I believe that I'll have a short rest." Slipping off the ribbon device she stood, gazing down at him, dangling the gold implement from her left hand. Her expression was inscrutable. "I'm allowing my…boys…to play with you for a while." She stepped down at last, high heels clicking across the marble, and headed for the main doorway. "Careful now," she told her troops. "Mind the face – it's relatively handsome. And I still need him to be able to speak when you're finished." Turning away she left the room.
Mitchell was hauled up on to his rather wobbly legs. "Hey," he grinned at the very, very young man who held on to him. "You wanna dance?"
There was no answer, as the soldier directly behind the Colonel punched him hard, just below his right kidney.
Mitchell sank to his knees, face grimacing in pain. Hurry up Sam, he thought. Just – hurry up.
o – o – o – o – o – o –
The George Hammond moved smoothly through subspace, in the direction of Athena's homeworld.
Jack, after his initial appearance on the bridge, had behaved himself admirably, remembering for once that his wife was in charge and really, he had to do what she said. He busied himself with sorting out supplies, and weapons, and going over the prospective battle plans with both Bra'tac and Teal'c. Both Jaffa appeared confident that they had the upper hand if it came to hand to hand fighting.
"It will," Jack sighed. "Always does when the snake-heads are involved."
Teal'c smiled. "There is nothing to fear, O'Neill," he told him, smoothly. "You have distinguished yourself in hand to hand combat on numerous occasions. I am sure that you will do well again."
"Why thank you Teal'c," Jack replied sarcastically. "So glad for the encouragement there."
"He's not going," Sam came into the cargo bay. "General O'Neill is here merely as an observer. Isn't that right, sir?" The look that she sent her husband's way bordered on the menacing.
"Oh, sure." Jack shrugged a nod. "Observing. I'll be an observeful observer. You watch me."
Sam eyed him with a speculative glint. "Sir, if I thought that you came here with any ulterior motive I might get pretty angry with you, you know that? Any ideas that you might have about sneaking down to the planet with the rest of the warriors, for instance."
"Carter," Jack looked the picture of innocence. "My initial brief was to come on a recon mission, like I said. And I'm retired now, so basically I can talk Landry into letting me do pretty much anything."
"You said that the President sent you," Teal'c reminded him.
Jack glared at the Jaffa.
Teal'c looked saintly.
"Did I?" The silver haired General smiled sweetly around at all of them. "Well, I may have made that part up. Landry sent me."
"Or rather, you turned up at the SGC and told him you were going to come anyway!" Sam could feel her temper rising again. "This is just how you always were, sir! Doing things exactly how you wanted, not obeying rules, taking no notice of superior officers…"
"Hank's not my superior," Jack rubbed his hand up the back of his head. "And like I said, you need all the help that you can get. And I did intend to just come with the supplies and stay on the ship. I mean – obviously – that's what I'm going to do."
"Damn you, Jack!" Sam slapped her hands on the console in front of her.
"Hey – Colonel," his voice was low, but held a warning.
They glared at each other for a long beat before Sam ruefully shook her head. "You are the worst husband in the world," she told him. "In any world."
There was another short pause. Jack tucked a stray lock of blonde hair gently behind his wife's ear.
Sam brushed his hand away, before catching hold of it again and squeezing. "And you're no longer serving, Jack, so stop with the rank-pulling."
"Yes sir," he said, smarmily, but his eyes twinkled.
Teal'c, unseen, raised his eyebrows to the heavens.
They were interrupted by Major Marks voice through the intercom. "Coming up on the enemy homeworld, Colonel Carter," he told her.
"Thanks Marks." Sam widened her large blue eyes. "Well, here we go."
The group headed towards the bridge, Teal'c and Bra'tac breaking off to form up with the Jaffa troops elsewhere on the ship.
Jack placed his hand on his wife's shoulder as they approached the control centre of the ship. She stopped and looked at him resignedly.
"Good luck," he said, softly.
Sam swallowed and briefly cupped his cheek with her hand. "You too," she answered. Then paused. "You're going with Teal'c, aren't you?"
"Yeah." Jack grinned wryly. "You can take the boy out of the Air Force but you can't take the Air Force out of the boy!"
Sam smiled, before kissing him hard but briefly. "Then I'll see you when you get back," she said, walking swiftly away onto the bridge.
"Yes you will," Jack whispered, watching her go. Then he turned and ran off, careful of his dodgy knees, in the direction of Teal'c and Bra'tac.
TBC...