By the time Jack, Ian and McKay all walked into the room, the rest of the people who had been summoned where already present for the briefing. Sam was there, chatting amicably with Hunt as they waited, and River Hayden was talking to the small group of Marine and Air Force officers who had helped in the very short battle for the SGC. Shawn had obviously hooked up with Andrew and the two of them smiled a greeting to Jack, who walked over and sat between Shawn and Sam, while Ian took the empty spot beside Chelani, who watched him intently, clearly curious about what he'd learned. He wasn't the only one.

"What do you have for us, Ian?" Jack asked without preamble. Everyone in the room was supposed to be there, and there wasn't any reason to hold back any information from anyone there. If there were, that person wouldn't have been invited.

"What do you know about the Ashrak?" Ian asked the room in general.

Most of them shrugged, hating to admit that they didn't really know much of anything about them. Ian wasn't surprised; he hated admitting things like that, too.

"They don't seem to like Shawn much," River said, which made Ian smile.

"Actually, turns out they don't hate Shawn at all," he replied.

"They've been after him since he was a little kid," Jack objected. "They must have something against him."

Ian shook his head.

"From what I got out of the guy we captured, the Ashrak are actually specialized assassins for the Goa'uld. You ever hear of assassins choosing their own targets?"

"Not very often," Jack admitted. "So who is it? A Goa'uld?"

"Apparently."

"How could a Goa'uld have something against me personally?" Shawn asked. "Especially something against me since I was a little kid?"

Ian shrugged.

"The Ashrak didn't know. Apparently they don't need many details other than to know who they are supposed to kill. However, I did pick up the Goa'uld's name."

"Yeah?"

"Frenush is the name of the Goa'uld that hired the Ashrak – and this isn't the first time. The bounty is getting bigger and bigger every time a group fails. Big enough that it's hard to resist – not to mention the bragging rights for taking down someone that no one else has been able to get to."

Shawn frowned at the turn of phrase, and shrugged.

"Frenush? I don't know that name."

Jack hadn't recognized it, either. Of course, it wasn't – and never had been – his goal in life to know all the Goa'uld by name.

"I recognize it."

Everyone turned and looked at Chelani, surprised. Of course, not everyone in the room knew exactly who he was – or rather, who he used to play host to – and only a few of them even knew that he wasn't human.

"You do?" Jack asked.

"He is a very minor Goa'uld system lord. One that the other system lords do not even consider a threat – at least as I remember they never did."

"What does he have against Shawn?" Hunt asked.

Chelani shrugged.

"That I cannot know. Only he could answer that. However, I do remember that he was not always a minor system lord. He lost much face at one point – something…" Chelani shrugged again. "I only know what I remember hearing, and that is not much – only that it was a source of amusement to the major system lords and the cause of his fall. Something to do with the Asgard and a group of people they protected."

Sam frowned.

"That's not much help…"

"I am sorry."

"What else did you learn from the Ashrak?" McKay asked Ian, more interested in that than in any Goa'uld. McKay knew all there was to know about the Goa'uld, after all.

"They're assassins almost exclusively," Ian answered. "That's what they train for from the time they're very young. Lots of weapons I've never heard of or seen before. I-"

"Things we can make?" McKay asked, quickly.

Of course, he loved new technology so that wasn't surprising. Jack looked interested, also, and Ian knew that had nothing to do with technology. He was always interested in new weapons.

"Let's worry about the Ashrak before we start trying to invent their technology from the ground up," Sam suggested.

McKay scowled, but while he might have snapped at anyone else who suggested that, he visibly clamped down on whatever he was going to say and instead just nodded.

"Sounds to me like we need to find out what it is that Shawn here did to piss of Frenush," River said before anyone else could speak.

"How?" asked Andrew.

"We ask the Tok'ra," Jack replied, looking at Sam, who nodded her agreement.

"Dad might know."

"Good idea. See if you can get hold of him to ask."

"Invite him to the party," Shawn suggested. "That way he gets cake out of it."

Which made more than one person in the room smile.

Sam looked over at Hunt.

"Can I borrow your control room for a minute?"

"Sure."

She got up and left, Jack watching her until she was out of sight behind the door she closed behind her, and only then was he able to pull his attention back to Ian, which amused the New Yorker despite the slight headache he still had.

"So tell me how they got into the base."

"Came in cloaked one at a time," Ian answered. "Until they were all here. Took their time about it, too – over the course of several days. Then they started learning the lay of the base and learning about the people here, learning names –"

"Looking for Shawn?" Andrew interrupted.

"That too."

"I've been on the base all week," Shawn said. "Why didn't they make a move on me before – catch me alone in the locker room or something?"

"Because they were planning on bringing you back alive," Ian told him. "Just to prove how good they were."

"Which is why they had their weapons set on stun," Rodney mused.

"Exactly." Ian shook his head. "It was stupid, really, but the pride came into play. Frenush doesn't want Shawn alive – he has no intention of torturing him or anything-"

"That's a relief," Shawn muttered ruefully, drawing a tight smile from Jack and several others.

"He just wants him dead for what he did."

"What'd they do to my shield?" Hunt asked.

"That was a piece of work," Ian said, and he couldn't hide how impressed he was. "The Ashrak I got hold of was… well, I guess you'd call him their technician, or their tinkerer, maybe? Whatever he was, when he got here he hadn't seen anything like our shielding device –"

"No surprise there," McKay said, interrupting again. "It's Ancient, after all."

"Right. But he figured it out – at least the key components of the technology – and managed to adapt some of their technology to it and change it."

"Which is why I wasn't sure what I was seeing…" Rodney said. "Only that it was something that we hadn't put there."

"Exactly. When I have a chance I'll look back and figure out what he learned, but we don't have to worry about this group telling anyone else, because the Ashrak don't cooperate any more than necessary – another pride thing, I suppose – and this group never had a chance or a reason to send any messages offworld."

"That is a relief," Jack agreed. "You fixed what they did?"

"Yeah. The shield is back at default, and already up again."

"Good."

Jack looked at the others in the group and then at Ian.

"Anything else we need to know right now?"

"Probably," Ian admitted. "But I'm still trying to sort out everything I learned. I've told you the important stuff."

"Then let's break this up for now. We've got other things to do today." He looked at Ian. "Have someone check you out before you leave the base."

"I'm fine, Jack."

"Just do it, Ian. Or would you rather I talk to Cassie about-"

"Fine."

Now everyone in the room smiled, and it seemed like a very good place to end the briefing.