CHAPTER 54

EPISODE----------PROMETHEUS UNBOUND

Carter was working on a project dealing with her laptop at the moment. The rest of the project was in parts and pieces down in another lab. She looked up seeing Ford walk in looking a little tired or winded.

"Have another nice class?" she said smiling as she leaned onto the table with her elbows looking at him closely, seductively.

"Teal'c must have needed to get rid of some stress. Including Daniel for once. And a few others." he said rolling his neck and making it pop. "I'm guessing Teal'c was just bored. Daniel might have been because of…."

"Wanting to go off to the Pegasus galaxy? Possibly being turned down?"

"Yeah. I didn't get knocked down or hit, but I certainly had to work at it with Teal'c. Daniel just caught me while being winded."

"I should have came and watched. Not often I see you winded, except in bed, like a couple nights ago." she said whispering out the last part.

"Ahem, yeah, sure. Hey, I need you to do me a favor." he said changing the subject quickly as he leaned onto the table and crossed his legs slightly.

"A favor huh? What can I do that you can't do?" she said with a small laugh as she saw his stance change. She also leaned more onto the table getting closer to his face.

"Funny. There is many things that you can do that I can't."

"And?" she said with a slightly seductive smile.

"I want you to teach me one of those things."

"Ah, now I'm teaching you something. What would it be that I'd be teaching you…where and when?"

"Home. Tonight. In the kitchen."

"You want me to cook?" she said almost in disbelief.

It wasn't very often she did, but sometimes, though she wasn't all that great at it, she was learning. Sometimes she insisted or surprised him. The thing that caught her off guard was he had never asked her to cook, sometimes help though. She decided to play with his request.

"Are you sure that's what you want? Seriously? Or is it really something else?"

"Yes, I'm being serious." he said nodding. "You, I heard once say, was…no, are able to make something I have never succeeded at. Never. And don't take this offensively, but it must be a woman thing."

This really got her attention.

"I know how to make something…..that you can't make…and haven't succeeded at? And it's a woman thing?" she said really smiling while trying to think what it was.

"Go ahead. Laugh if you wish. You know I'm not prefect and I admit that."

"Oh really now? I hadn't noticed." she laughing.

"You're really enjoying this a bit too much."

She laughed loudly seeing the look that came with that statement. Jack had that look sometimes with her.

"Ah, Ford. You're so funny sometimes." she said after getting her breath back. "So what is it I'll be cooking?"

"A soufflé."

"Now that, I can believe. It is one of the more difficult dishes. After that we can go to the bedro…" she was saying as Daniel walked in. She stopped quickly from moving closer to him.

"Hey, I'm not interrupting anything am I?" he asked seeing them both back up from each other.

"Not really….no." Carter said, lying somewhat. "What's up?"

"I need Ford's help with something, if he's available."

"Sure. What's up?" he said turning to him and jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "She's laughing at me so I'm ready to leave."

"Laughing at you? What'd you do?"

"I was not laughing like….."

"I'm playing with you Sam. Anyway Daniel."

"I need you to help me argue with Jack about letting me go."

"Ah." they both said.

"Yeah go ahead. I hope it works out Daniel. I know you've been wanting to go since day one. We'll miss you so send a postcard." she said. "Oh, and good luck."

"Did I interrupt something back there?"

"Not really. We were talking about some things we are going to do tonight. Assuming we aren't sent off world or something big comes up."

"Tonight? Wait, your not talking about what…"

"No Daniel." he said shaking his head. "We were starting to talk about that, subject, when you walked in."

"Oh, that explains Sam's slightly disappointed look."

"Yes. But it was no big deal. Part of me is glad you showed up. If it was Jack, then she'd probably shut the door and said we were busy."

"Sounds about right. So can I ask what you were talking about before I showed up?"

"Cooking."

"Ah man. That's the one big thing I'll miss about leaving. I'll have to go back to whatever is called cooking by their standards in Atlantis."

"You could stay."

"Nah. I'd really like to see Atlantis. I'll just have to do without good food for awhile. Be like before you showed up."

"There's Jack, hold the elevator!"

Moments later, they were all in the elevator, heading down to level 27 to get to Jack's office. They were in the elevator talking about Daniel leaving, not with much success either.

"Come on Jack!" Daniel said pleading as they got off.

"Still no Daniel." Jack said.

"But it wouldn't be on a permanent basis!"

"He'd be coming back Brigadier."

"I didn't let you go in the first place. What makes you think I'm going to change my mind now?"

"Because…."

They stopped in the hallway as Walter handed a clipboard to Jack that needed signing.

"Look Jack, he has taught me what I need to know to do his job. I have notes, computer files and translated text books. Hell, we have K-9! I can do this while he is gone." Ford said ticking off fingers.

"I need to be out there Jack. I'm the foremost authority on Ancients and know how to read it better than anyone on this planet."

"And that's why you are staying here!"

"Jack, I can do it!" Ford stated.

"And not very well from what I hear." he said with sarcasm.

"I know how to read it well enough, with K-9's help. Maybe it's because I am one. Let him go fulfill this dream."

"No."

"I'll quit then." Daniel stated.

"Little rash there Daniel."

"I'm serious." he said crossing his arms.

"Forget it. Why don't you just hold your breath instead. You haven't done that in awhile." Jack said being equally sarcastic as they entered his office.

"Jack. You have to let him go, or else I'll…" Ford said as they all stopped seeing someone in Jack's chair. The person in it turned it around and they saw General Hammond with a big smile on his face.

"General! Hey, how are things going?"

"Just fine Major. Hello General. I let myself in. Hope you don't mind."

"Absolutely not. Welcome!" Jack said happily as he gestured around the office.

Hammond gave a small laugh and nodded.

"Miss the chair?" Jack asked with a suggestive tone.

"Actually I do." he said smiling still.

"You want it back?" Jack said in about the same tone.

"As a matter of fact, I do. My new one just isn't the same."

"That's not exactly what I meant." Jack said as he realized what Hammond meant. Ford started laughing, but contained it quickly as Jack glared at him.

"Doctor Jackson. It's nice to see you again."

"Likewise. We miss you around here sir."

Jack gave him a strange look.

"Ah, so what do we own this pleasure?" Daniel asked ignoring Jack's glare.

"I came to ask you if you'd be interested in joining the mission to Atlantis?"

"Hey, looks like you get to go anyway Daniel." Ford said patting him on the shoulder.

"I do?" he said sounding like it wasn't real.

"He's the most qualified person on the planet. And the mission commander wants him to come along. I've heard and read the reports O'Neill. Major Carter is more than capable of filling the position until he returns."

"With all due respects sir. I think you should tell the mission commander that I need Daniel right here." Jack said pointing at the floor.

"You just did."

"I.." Jack started saying in shock.

"Congratulations sir! You're the one taking the Prometheus there then?"

"I am Major." he said shaking Ford's hand.

"You got lucky sir. Get to take the scenic route. Get out there and see what the adventure is like for once."

"That I do. Request denied O'Neill. Doctor Jackson, you're with me." he said getting up. "I'll have the chair shipped to Washington. You'll have to requisition a new one."

"I'll do that sir." Jack said slowly.

"We leave tomorrow. Oh and I'm taking Walter too." he said walking away.

"Good luck Daniel. Hey, bring back some souvenir huh."

"Sure. I'll see if I can find anything." Daniel said shaking Ford's hand as he walked out under the scrutiny of Jack's look.

"Jack, I can assure you that I am capable of doing the job."

"That's not the point. I don't want to get a report back saying he died, ascended or otherwise."

"He'll be back Jack. Besides, if something did happen, he'd ascend and still be here, somewhat. Now if you'll excuse me Brigadier, I have work to do and things to ask Daniel about his projects before he leaves."

Jack looked around with a groan, glanced at the chair and got on the phone to get a new one put in quickly before he had no seat at all.

The Prometheus was still underground and had just recently got finished with all repairs and upgrades. It was sitting in the underground hanger awaiting departure orders. Daniel walked through a door passing another guy going past him and passed a woman working on a conduit in the wall. He had black jeans, shirt, a black leather jacket on and carrying a bag with him full of stuff he figured he might need. He was smiling at the thought of leaving to see Atlantis as he walked around the corridor and saw Hammond talking with a couple of crew members.

"General!"

"Welcome aboard." Hammond said walking over and shaking his hand also happy to see him. Hammond had a blue outfit on like all the crewmembers. His depicted his rank though as did everyone else's.

"Thank you sir, again."

"My motives were purely selfish Doctor Jackson. We haven't heard a word from the Atlantis expedition since they first left. We have no idea what we are going to find Pegasus." he said placing a hand on his shoulder as they started walking. "Your knowledge and expertise will no doubt prove invaluable."

"Ah, General. If you don't mind my asking…?"

"Why am I going?" Hammond said knowing where Daniel was going.

"Well, you could have chosen anyone to command this mission." Daniel said as they walked the corridors.

"You know, I've sat back and watched you people go on a lot of adventures over the years…" Hammond said chuckling.

"Sorry, I thought that when you were replaced at the SGC, you were sort of….bucking for retirement."

"And then I lead Prometheus against Anubis's fleet." he pointed out.

"Got your dander up." Daniel said understanding.

"Well, that's why I took the job as head of Homeworld security. Then this opportunity came along. Well, the President put me in charge so I could choose anyone I wanted to lead the mission."

"So why not choose yourself?"

"Like I said, I sent a lot of people into action over the years, and more than a few didn't come back. I wanted to see this one through personally. Like Ford said, see the adventure first hand for once."

"I see. That and we never leave anyone behind."

"Right. And we are not going to this time." Hammond pointed out then walked away to the bridge. Daniel walked away heading for his quarters to get settled in.

Later, Daniel had a room set up for him to present what he knew. Hammond and several other top officers on the ship sat at the table as he gave his presentation. A large board behind him had information about the ship on it. In front of that had a large flat screen showing the information Daniel was giving. A redheaded woman came into the room as he was speaking having trouble with the hiccups. She took a seat next to Walter who was sitting next to Hammond.

"Last reported M.A.L.P. telemetry from Atlantis, indicated an enclosed space with viable life support." he said waiting for her to sit before continuing.

"Now, going on the assumption that the expedition team found the lost city and was able to set up a base of operations…"

She had a hiccup loudly. "Sorry."

Hammond looked back at her.

"The Asguard hyperdrive is functioning at 100 sir."

He nodded to her and turned back.

"Doctor Jackson."

"I'm sorry. Where was I?"

"Oh, you were assuming that the lost city was at the end of this field trip." she said then hiccupped again. "Please ignore me."

"It's hard to." Daniel said.

She smiled lightly, but not a happy smile.

"You disagree doctor?" Hammond asked her.

"Well, as far as we know, the Atlantis team found another outpost like the one in Antarctica. It could be on a moon or at the bottom of some deep dark ocean." she said then hiccupped again.

"Which is why we are going. If they are trapped and need help…"

"If they are even alive at all." she said grimacing at another hiccup.

"As for why they have not been able to make contact with Earth," Daniel said as Walter slid a glass of water to her. "Hopefully it's just that they have been unable to locate a viable power source."

"Using information collected from the Ancient outpost on Earth, Doctor Jackson and his team have pinpointed our destination in the Pegasus galaxy." Hammond said.

"Which is here." Daniel pointed out on the screen.

Another loud hiccup.

"Damn it to hell." she said grabbing the water. Needless to say, it didn't work.

After the meeting she left finding Daniel waiting at the elevator.

"Doctor Novak." he said.

"Doctor Jackson."

"Daniel."

"You can call me Linsey. Sorry for contradicting you in the briefing." she said as the door opened and they walked in.

She pushed a button on the wall having to push past him to get it. Another man was in the elevator leaning against a moving tray table in the back.

"Oh no, don't be. You were right. The fact that we haven't heard from the Atlantis expedition is bad sign. Though I don't know why, Ford says he believes they are just fine."

"You mean Major Carter?"

"That's the one."

She nodded looking at the ceiling and had another hiccup.

"Have you tried holding your breath?"

"Oh god. I have tried everything." she said.

"Yeah, doesn't work for me either."

"It's been like this for me since I was a kid." she said having another hiccup as the doors opened.

"You know, it only comes on when I get scared, but this is the worse it's been since my PhD presentation." she said talking to him and walking backwards like she could see behind her. "I mean, I really don't do well in stressful situation. I guess that's why I turned down going to Atlantis the first time."

Daniel looked at his watch and readjusted his hold on a notebook.

"Well I'm sure you're going to be fine. General Hammond says you're very good at what you do."

"Oh, thank you." she said obviously flattered as she blushed.

Then the alarms started going off and she hiccupped again.

"What's that? What's wrong?" she asked worried as she looked around.

"I don't know." Daniel said slowly as he took off to the bridge.

She held her breath a moment then ran off to her post.

The Colonel of SG-3 was looking out the front window of the ship as the alarms went off. He turned away and walked past Hammond who was sitting in the command chair as Daniel walked in.

"We're picking up what sounds like a distress call." Hammond said as Daniel walked up to the computer console that Walter was stationed at on Hammond's right.

"Where are we?" Daniel asked leaning on the console.

"We are still well inside the Milky Way." Walter said after pushing a few buttons.

"Play it back." Hammond commanded.

"Yes sir." Walter said hitting a button on his left.

A female voice came over the line, part of the message was garbled though.

"Help…please, require assistance…have failed…..lost power to…..repeat, stranded an…."

"She sounds human." Daniel commented.

"What do you think?" Hammond asked.

"Well, as much as I don't want to delay this trip, I think we should check it out."

"How far away is it?"

"The message is originating just over 50 light years off our designated course. We could be there in twenty minutes." Walter said.

"Set a course."

Twenty minutes later they dropped out of hyperspace finding a Al'kesh and a cargo ship drifting. Both looked badly damaged.

"Set shields at maximum. Arm weapons." Hammond commanded seeing what the ships were.

"Looks like an Al'kesh and a cargo ship." the Colonel said looking at the scanner with Walter.

"Scans indicate they have suffered significant damage. The distress signal is coming from the Al'kesh." Walter said.

"I don't understand. A human distress signal from inside a Goa'uld ship." Hammond said looking at Daniel. "That makes no sense."

"I agree sir." the Colonel said crossing his arms worried. "I think it's a trap."

"Look, I know this looks suspicious. But what if there was a uprising on one of those ships." Daniel said walking around to the front of the console. "There could be human prisoners in need of our help."

"Open a channel." Hammond said after a moment of thought.

"Yes sir."

"This is General George Hammond of the Earth vessel Prometheus. We are answering your distress call and standing ready to assist you."

They got no response.

"We can transport a portable sensor probe over to determine life support viability." Walter suggested. Hammond nodded him to do it.

"General, a Al'kesh is a potentially valuable ship. Even if there are no survivors, we need to determine if it's space worthy. If it is, salvage her." the Colonel said.

"Take a team."

"Yes sir." he said leaving the bridge.

After several minutes of getting ready, SG-3 transported over using the ring system on the ship. They looked around with weapons pointed before leaving the ring area. It was rather dark so they had their flashlights on and a mist was in the air making everything seem a little creepy and slightly hard to breath. There was air, it was just thin.

"Prometheus, this is SG-3. We are on board."

The Colonel made a hand gesture and they slowly walked down a corridor.

"General we are seeing some energy weapon damage."

He made another motion splitting the team up. He took off to the right and instantly came across a body on the floor.

"One dead Jaffa. K.I.A." he reported.

He was looking around when another team members called. Racing over he and the rest of the team found a few more Jaffa bodies. All dead.

"Make that four Jaffa. Looks like these guys had a little onboard firefight. Still no sign of life. We are heading toward the bridge."

They turned and headed out quickly hearing noises.

On the Prometheus they were listening in.

"Prometheus, someone just activated…"

The signal suddenly was filled with static.

"Colonel Reynolds, say again." Hammond said pushing a button on his chair.

"Sir, our rings just activated." Walter said.

Down in the ship near the ring room, the doors opened and a Kull warrior stepped out looking around.

"Security to level four ring room. Visual on screen." Hammond ordered.

Walter hit a few buttons and a screen came up, but it was a lot of static.

"Seal it off."

"Controls are not responding sir."

Over in the other ship with SG-3.

"Airman?"

"It's a no go sir. The rings will not activate." the airman said as Colonel Reynolds came over. The airman had been trying for the last few minutes to get them to work, with no success.

"Security team. Report."

"All ship board communications are down!" Walter said.

"Initiate emergency lockdown."

"I can't sir. It may be possible from the engine room."

Hammond turned to Daniel.

"Go."

Daniel nodded and took off with several men. They came running around a corner to find the Kull warrior messing with a computer system in the wall. Daniel dived off to the right as it turned. The men pulled their guns firing. The warrior zatted them all once and turned away. Daniel stood up quietly and looked out slowly as he heard thudding noises. He didn't see the warrior though but he did hear more zat shots go off and thudding from falling officers as he took off a different direction.

Over on the Al'kesh the rings activated depositing unconscious crew members.

"That wasn't me sir." the airman said surprised like the rest of them.

"Let's get them out of there." Reynolds said as he grabbed a body.

Walter was going about working at his console when the door opened. Everyone turned to see the Kull warrior walk in pointing a zat at them. Walter heard Hammond mutter something about wishing he'd brought Ford along.

Daniel was still traversing the ship corridors and turned a corner looking and hearing. Seeing nothing and hearing even less, he opened the door to the armory and grabbed a modified PC-90 for killing Kull warriors and a vest.

Over on the Al'kesh they were still moving crew members out of the way as they kept ringing over. The rings activated again and SG-3 pointed their weapons as four members of the bridge crew showed up. But they were still conscious. Reynolds sighed as he lowered his gun. Hammond looked around confused with what had happened. They went up to the bridge quickly only to see the Prometheus fly away on its sublight engines.

"Can we pursue?"

Reynolds set his gun aside and got into the chair quickly. It didn't take him long to realize that it wasn't possible.

"Engines are off line. Controls are non responsive. Weapons are offline too sir. Looks like we are dead in the water."

"General." Walter said walking in. "I just did a head count. Daniel Jackson is still aboard he Prometheus."

Hammond looked out the window and nodded as he took off to the back of the ship.

Daniel was holding the gun at ready as he walked through the ship to the bridge. The door to the bridge was open and the warrior had its back to him. He walked in slowly and shot it. It turned from what it was doing on some screen that showed the interior of the ships schematics. He fired again and nothing still happened. The warrior raised the zat gun.

"Oh crap."

Daniel grimaced as he dropped to the ground unconscious.

"Are you okay?" Hammond asked kneeling before the doctor with the hiccup problem.

"Ah, my head feels like it's going to explode, but on the bright side, it looks like my hiccups are gone." Lindsey said with a smile that faded away as a hiccup hit her. She closed her eyes and shook her head then looked back at him. "What do you need sir?"

"I need this ship operational. Now."

"Yes sir." she said getting up quickly with help from an airman.

Hammond left going up front again. He found Walter at the console with his glasses on his head.

"Near as I can tell, we are lucky to have life support systems at all sir." Walter said as he continued working on the console.

"How much time do you think we have?"

"That's hard to say. I have some secondary systems online, including some short range sensors sir. Scans of the cargo ship indicate it's in worse shape than this Al'kesh." he said then turned to Hammond. "Strange isn't sir?"

"That, that Goa'uld super soldier would go through all this trouble to keep us alive." Hammond said confused himself as he left.

Daniel woke up with his arms tied to the Captains chair he was sitting in. The plastic tie straps were holding his arms to the arms of the chair. He looked over seeing the warrior continue on the job it was doing before when he tried shooting it when he came in earlier. He also noticed his glasses were missing.

"Hey, how's it going?"

He got no response as the warrior touched a button on the wall changing the screen. He cleared his throat.

"Guess it's just you and me, huh?"

No response still.

"A little strange isn't it. You see that weapon I shot you with should have killed you." he said testing his restraints.

"What's stranger is that you guys don't take prisoners. It's usually just kill first then ah……...no that's generally just about it. Just killing."

The warrior shifted its stance but kept looking at the screen.

"Well, I'm just going to keeping talking since you're not going to. Not that you all aren't very talkative."

"You may prove useful." it said turning to him. The voice was distorted, but sounded male.

"Okay, now we are getting somewhere." Daniel said slowly as the warrior walked his way. "Where is everybody else?"

"I transported them onto the Al'kesh."

"Well, you kept the wrong guy because I don't know anything about this ship." he said glancing around with his eyes.

"But you are very attractive." the warrior said moving closer.

Daniel was…surprised and shocked. That was certainly the last thing he expected to hear. He coughed in surprise. "What?"

The warrior walked up closer, just within feet touching as it leaned over just a bit.

"Big guy. I'm flattered, it's just that you're really. Not my type. I'm more than a little disturbed that I might be yours." he said cringing.

It leaned over and started taking the helmet off.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Don't do that! Don't! You don't have to take the helmet off! Don't! Don't!" he said looking away with his eyes closed.

The helmet came away and was placed under the arm. He looked back slowly seeing a long dark haired, smiling woman.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Thank god." he said with a lot of relief that what he thought was under the mask wasn't it.

"Much….I hope." she said still smiling.

She turned away and walked over to the console near the view port window and started taking off the armor, but left the tight black leotard outfit on and the left arm with the weapon.

"I wish to send a long range transmission using the communication systems." she said as she took the last part off her right leg.

"Sorry, don't have a clue." he said looking down at his arm.

"You lie." she said walking over to him.

"In general. No. Yes, well I try to be honest. But ever once and a while a little white one slips out now and again."

She slapped him turning his head to his right.

"Ow." he said slowly turning his head back to her. Very slowly.

"Shall I kiss it and make it better?"

He looked at her trying not to look like he thought she was crazy.

"Um…no. Just don't do that again."

She still looked at him smiling. But not a real happy smile.

"Hey, look. If I even knew what it is that you wanted me help you do. What makes you think I would? And how the hell do you think you can steal a ship when you don't even know how it works?!"

"I got the sublight engines going."

He looked around.

"Yeah, so you did."

"You really expect me to believe that you don't know how your own ship works?"

"Yeah, um….look, my name is Daniel Jackson. I am a archaeologist. A historian." he said being serious as she stood up from sitting on the console and dropped down into the seat next to him.

"I study ancient cultures. Histories of the past. Ancient civilizations! Have you heard of Earth, the Tauri!" he said looking over at her as she working on the computer console.

"No."

"Look, we were on our way to rescue some friends that are trapped…"

"Oh, I really don't care." she said turning to him briefly.

He rolled his head and sighed as she kept at the computer.

"Look, this isn't really necessary…"

She held her hands up in front of her like the were mouths and mocked him.

"Can I have the ship? No. Okay, discussion over!" she said slamming a hand onto the console making it beep as she looked at him annoyed. She looked up at the screen as he turned away.

"Oh." she said happily as the communication system came online.

"Here we go." she said smiling as Daniel looked away with a strange look.

"Tenat of Oran. Tenat, this is Vala. If you can hear me, please respond." she said as Daniel started moving his arm, that she couldn't see, against the metal on the side of the chair. "I've managed to procure a vessel, bigger and better than what I hoped for. Tenat if you get this message, I apologize for the delay, and we'll meet at the designated coordinates in one day. Vala out." she said cutting off the communications. She turned to him as he looked ahead like he was doing nothing.

"Now, about the hyperdrive?"

He looked at her strangely as she gave him a raised eyebrow. He turned away tiredly seeing as she wasn't getting the picture.

"Colonel, Doctor." Hammond said walking in.

"I have rerouted the remaining power to shields and life support for the time being." she said setting a crystal she pulled out moments ago onto the pulled out panel. "But as far as the engines go…"

"The control crystals for both sublight and hyperdrive engines are totally fried." Reynolds said upset at the news.

"It looks like they were deliberately sabotaged." she said scanning the crystals.

"Can they be repaired?" Hammond said looking between the both of them.

"No. We need new ones."

"General, I was thinking about the cargo ship." Reynolds said.

"Sergeant Harriman says there is minimal life support over their to sustain one person even for a few moments."

"And if we don't get new crystals…" she said as she kept scanning and hiccupped. "Sorry, kill me now."

"I'll go sir."

"No, I'll go."

"With all due respect…"

"Colonel. Someone stole my ship. I want it back!" he said walking away angry.

Daniel was still rubbing away on the plastic tie as she continued on the computer on his left. The screen popped up, again, Access Denied.

"Access is restricted by a code." she said glaring at him.

"Yeah, too bad." he said not caring.

She shot him just below the shoulder of his left arm. He screamed and gritted his teeth not being able to grab his arm that hurt like hell as smoke rose from the burn.

"That hurt?" she said turning to him.

"Oh, yeah." he gritted out.

"I can fix it." she said holding her right hand up that had a small red object on her finger.

"I don't know the code!"

She got up as he grunted in pain and sat on his lap. She held her hand over his injured arm healing it.

"There. Better?"

He looked down at his arm seeing a burnt patch of his shirt and bare skin that was completely healed.

"You're a Goa'uld."

"No…..but I was once a host to one."

"Which would explain the naquada in your blood that lets you use Goa'uld technology."

"And how I can learn to fly this rather primitive ship." she said with a heartless laugh.

"Yes, so primitive, one wonders it if was worth the bother."

"Well, in this case, it's the size that matters…" she said looking around, but not getting off him. "Actually pretty much in every case."

Daniel was looking at her, into her eyes seeing as she was that close.

"Tell me the code. Please?" she asked sadly as she fingered his once injured arm.

"I don't….I don't know it."

"Fine." she said getting off him.

She walked a few steps, looked at him then left the bridge. Daniel signed with relief she was gone and got back to trying to get the tie off.

"How much time does he have?" Reynolds asked as Hammond got ready to ring over. He had a vest on along with a PC-90 ready.

"Only a few minutes." Walter said making Hammond look up. "Maybe less."

"Sir…"

"Not another word Colonel." he said walking into the middle. He checked his gun further. "Do it now."

Walter walked up looking like he wanted to say a lot. "Godspeed."

Hammond nodded and got ready to shoot if need be. He ringed over, turned on his flashlight on the gun and looked around with a small cough. Seeing the route he needed to take, he started off. He leaned again the wall coughing as his com line came on about a minute later.

"General, General can you hear me?" Lindsey said from the bridge as Walter and the Colonel came in.

"I'm here in the engine room."

"Open the third panel down on the center column."

He did so seeing several crystals all lit up.

"Done."

"Grab the blue one located in the center of the panel."

"Got it. Next."

"One panel up you should find a clear one."

He opened it having trouble breathing even more and even more trouble seeing. And the panel had no power to the crystals making them all dark.

"It's hard to tell. The light in here is…" he said grabbing the right one. "Something's…

"General, can you hear me?"

"It's only been two minutes." Reynolds said.

"There was a firefight onboard. If the life support is not cycling the air…"

"What?" he asked.

"Staff blast give off carbon dioxide. In a small enclosed space.."

They all took off to the ring room quickly.

Hammond came crawling into the room and slid the two crystals over into the ring system then collapsed. The rings activated and the Colonel appeared. He rushed over and pulled the General into the rings and called to be brought back. Walter grabbed the crystals handing them to Lindsey as the Colonel came back with Hammond lying on the floor.

"General. General, sir!" Reynolds said slapping his face gently. He didn't respond as the Colonel opened the vest to hear for a heartbeat.

"Is he breathing?!" Walter asked.

Reynolds looked back at them and shook his head quickly.

"He may need mouth to mouth." Lindsey said.

He looked at her like it was the last thing he wanted to do. Walter looked away making sure he wasn't going to do it and Lindsey moved her head forward telling him he had to do it. Reynolds held Hammonds head in the air, pinched his nose and was about to when Hammond started coughing and sat up slightly.

"Excellent! Excellent waking up sir! Good job on the crystals too." he said patting Hammond on the chest. Hammond grabbed his lapels.

"Get this ship moving." he growled.

"What did he say?" Lindsey asked.

"He said, get the ship moving." Reynolds said in a hoarse voice.

She nodded and ran off with Water.

"Come on General, lets get you up." he said helping him to a sitting position first.

The Prometheus continued on its trip through space on sublight engines. She was in the engine room messing with the crystals trying to make the ship work for her. She closed the panel and walked away with a clear crystal in her hand. A screen popped up telling her the hyperdrive course she wanted was plotted.

"Better." she said turning from the screen. Daniel walked in with a zat gun.

"Lose the weapon and move away from the console."

She stopped and looked at him.

"I liked you better tied up."

"Against the wall. Lose the weapon." he said gesturing with the zat.

"This suit still absorbs zat blast." she said removing the arm weapon and glove.

"But it doesn't cover your head."

"Still, you should probably make me take it off." she said raising her hands as she stood against the wall and he walked over to the console.

"I think you should turn the ship around first."

"I don't know. If I had me at gun point, that wouldn't be my first choice." she said smiling again.

"Yeah, well." he said keeping the zat on her and he tapped away on the computer.

"What's going on?" he asked looking at her as the computer told him access denied.

"I rewrote the access code so I'm the only one that can access the navigation systems." she said leaning on the console.

"Undo it."

"Listen, hundreds of lives are at stake. I'm trying to save the last of my people and this ship is their only hope."

"Maybe if you had mentioned that off the top…"

"Would you really have helped?"

"Look, as I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted, we were on a rescue mission ourselves." he said forcefully. The screen started bleeping and he looked closely at it.

"What is it?"

"A ship just appeared on our radar. It's an Al'kesh."

"This quadrant is crawling with Goa'uld vessels. Chances are it's not your friends. I made sure that ship was fully disabled when they showed up."

"We'll see." he said typing away with both hands.

"We should raise shields and arm weapons."

"I'm going to try and hail them first." Daniel said walking away from the console.

She walked out from the console quickly and kicked the zat away then backhanded him. He was knocked back, but not off his feet. He turned to see her with her fist ready. She took a swing, he blocked it and hit her dead in the face. She grabbed her nose groaning as she tried to stay on her feet.

"Oh! Oh! You hit me! Oh!"

He sighed.

"You hit me." he said leaning down.

"You know, we could just have sex instead." she said still holding her nose. He blinked at the notion.

She elbowed him in the face then kicked him away in the chest. He groaned after hitting the floor and she rushed over grabbing him by the ears and hauled him to his feet. He reached out doing the same, both causing each other great pain as the grunted through it spinning around the room a bit until they smacked into the wall. She let go and dropped as Daniel took a swing hitting a glass panel, getting shocked by the wires. He grabbed his hands and yelled in pain as she grabbed a small fire extinguisher next to her and hit him in the crotch with it. He grunted and leaned over in pain as he backed away dropping the red fire suppressant from between his legs. She then kneed him in the face making him stumble back into the console. He blinked at her as she punched him dead in the face knocking him over the console.

"Feeling better sir?" Reynolds asked as Hammond came onto the Al'kesh bridge. Lindsey was standing next to him as Walter piloted.

"Yes, thank you." Hammond said nodding to them both.

"We just caught up with the Prometheus." he said looking out the window.

"Good work."

"It was Novak sir."

He nodded to her and she had another hiccup. She grimace and looked down at the floor.

"They're not responding to our hails sir." Walter said.

Daniel crawled out from behind the console coming around it breathing hard. She jumped the console landing in front of him. He sighed and turned around, still on all fours and tried to crawl away quickly. She jumped over and straddled his neck trying to squeeze it to either kill or make him fall asleep. He stood up as his face turned red and they both kept grunting through it all. She grabbed the beam in the ceiling trying to use it for leverage. Daniel put his arms between her knees and got himself free only to have her kick him in the chest with both feet knocking him to the ground. She dropped down and dropped herself across his hips and leaned into his face grabbing his shirt.

"Are we done?" she said tired.

"I am." he said leaving his arms out stretched refusing to fight back anymore.

She lifted him into a sitting position and kissed him deeply. Daniel went with it for a few moments then pushed her away a few inches.

"You're a fruitcake."

She head butted him then got up going to the computer as his eyes rolled back into his head. As she hit the execute button, she jerked suddenly as she was zatted. She turned dropping to her knees seeing him sitting up with the zat gun pointed. He didn't have to shoot again as she fell over onto her side unconscious. He lowered the gun, sighed a few times then lowered his head tired.

"Weapons?"

"Online. We are in range sir." Walter said.

"Target her rear thrusters. Take out her sublight capability."

As Walter started to aim, the Prometheus activated her hyperdrive and took off.

"She just jumped into hyperspace." Reynolds said as everyone noticed anyway. Hammond was beginning to look pissed off.

She woke up on the floor and felt her head. She sat up quickly

"Ow!"

She suddenly noticed she was wearing different clothes.

"Oh, that's just great."

Daniel was sitting at the controls on the bridge watching the ship fly through hyperspace. He looked up seeing she was awake and put her on a screen near him and activated voice control.

"I see you." he said watching her walk around the room looking at it. She turned and noticed the camera.

"Did you have fun taking off my clothes?"

"It was your idea." he said leaning on the console while holding his head up with his hand.

"No, I meant while I was conscious, you know so I could strike you and kick you in the head." she said turning away.

"I kept my eyes closed the whole time." he said sighing again.

"Sure you did." she said in total disbelief.

She knelt down tying a boot from the looks of it Daniel figured, as he put two fingers on the screen and acted like he was squishing her head. He almost wished he could.

"So where are we going?" he asked leaning his head on his hand again after she turned back to the camera.

"I told you. To save my people. Can you please let me out of here?"

"Oh…." he said drawing out the word for a few seconds. "No."

She let out a exasperated sigh and sat down on the toilet.

"You know…..I haven't eaten in days."

Daniel rolled his eyes a few times and sighed again.

"Can you please tell me how to access navigational control?"

"It isn't very nice you know. Starving a prisoner to death. Come on Daniel, you've seen me naked. The least you could do is make me dinner."

Daniel took his glasses off shaking his head and rolled his eyes again. What would the other's do? Jack might take her on her offer, maybe. Sam probably would have killed her. Teal'c would have killed her, no doubt there. Ford……I have no idea. He doesn't fight woman unless he has no choice. Have to ask him later. If I get out of this. He thought all this as he went down to let her out.

She was sitting at the end of the table eating several different things. Fruit items mostly. Two bottles of water were sitting there. Daniel sat at the other end with the zat pointed at her, just watching.

"Aren't you hungry?" she asked tossing an apple at him.

He didn't flinch or move as it rolled past him off the table.

"No."

She sighed and smiled at him as she picked up the bottle she hadn't finished.

"Thank you. You know who the Tok'ra are?" she said taking a drink.

"Yep."

"Ten years ago, the Tok'ra incited a rebellion on my planet. People rose up against the ruling Goa'uld, and once they overcame the Jaffa, the Goa'uld was captured, tortured, and beaten for days on end." she said pausing. "I was host to that Goa'uld at the time. What the people didn't understand was that the symbiont had ruled over them so harshly. I guess the Tok'ra felt responsible. He rescued me, removed the Goa'uld symbiont. Nursed me back to health."

Daniel looked away briefly.

"You said your people are in trouble now."

She rolled her head slightly smiling.

"Well, it was only a matter of time before the forces of another Goa'uld showed up. A System Lord named Camulus."

"Hmmm."

"That's when the Tok'ra disappeared. People still refused to surrender. Camulus ordered them to be wiped out. We controlled several ships. Troop transports, cargo ships, Al'kesh. Many people were saved, flown to a habitable moon in a nearby system. The ships made several trips before they were intercepted and shot down. Camulus never knew there were any survivors, so we were safe. The only problem was, we didn't have a Stargate." she said holding her bottle with both hands the entire time.

Daniel just stayed the same as before letting her talk. He didn't move.

"So you were trapped."

"We only had a few ships left. Not enough to relocate everyone again." she said as Daniel looked away for a moment. "It wasn't a problem. Camulus seemed to have very little interest in the other planets in the system. He left behind a small force to guard the Stargate. We used what ships we had to survey and steal technology and supplies when we needed it."

"You know Camulus is gone now. He was beaten by Ba'al." Daniel stated.

"And now Ba'als forces are searching every inhabitable world of Camulus's territory. And he is searching everywhere. It's only a matter of time before my people are found."

"So you got desperate and tried to steal an Al'kesh."

"It was damaged in the firefight. I was hoping that one of my ships would answer my distress call. I'm sure you can imaging how lucky I felt when this ship showed up." she said smiling at the thought. "It's big enough to rescue all my people and take them all away to another world, free from the Goa'uld."

Daniel looked down at the table as she took another drink. He had her get up and took her back to the brig. She laughed lightly as he opened the door.

"You don't have to lock me up."

"Oh, I think I do." he said leaning on the doorway, but kept the zat pointed at her.

"What difference is it going to make? This ship is automatically flying to my home world. You can't stop it."

"Well, once we get to your planet, I'll explain the situation to your people and maybe there will be something we can work out."

"My people, they are not going to trust you. You have to let me talk to them."

"No." he said closing the door in her face as she called his name. He walked away after locking the door.

"This is bad." she said walking away from the door.

Daniel walked onto the bridge seeing the ship had came out of hyperspace. And that it was being hailed. He sat down in the command chair as a voice came through.

"Vala, this is Tenat. We have you on our scanners"

He pushed a button playing along as best he could.

"Ah, yeah, hi."

"Where is Vala?" a demanding voice said.

"She's here, she's just, indisposed at the moment."

"She did not mention she was working with someone."

"No, I guess not." Daniel said not liking where this was going. "Look, I realize I owe you an explanation. It's a bit of a long story, really."

"We will hear it in person and inspect your vessel."

"That's good." he muttered as the ship descended into the atmosphere and started landing procedures. "Because we apparently are coming in for a landing."

"We will meet you at the designated coordinates."

"Okay dokey. See you there." Daniel said not liking where this was going at all.

The ship came down dropping its landing gear and landed without any problems. Two men picked a case off the ground walking over as a ramp came down.

Vala was messing with wires, obviously not knowing what she was doing when they shocked her.

"Ow!" she yelled as she walked away shaking her hand. She looked back at the camera.

"Okay, you want the truth. I'll tell you the truth. Daniel are you there?"

No one was on the bridge though. Daniel was elsewhere and the Kull warrior armor was missing.

"I hope you can hear me. The planet we just landed on is not my home world. Whatever you do, please do not go out there."

Outside Daniel walked off the ship finding two aliens he had never seen before standing near a large box about half he size of a coffin. He was wearing the Kull warrior armor and carrying a zat gun just in case.

"Hi guys."

"Who are you?" one of them asked.

"Name's…..Olo. Hans Olo."

Great, now I'm taking Jack's idea. I hope it works.

"Where is Vala?"

"She's inside."

"We will only do business with Vala!"

"Business. That figures. I don't look surprised to you, do I?"

"What?" one of them asked confused.

"It's just that I was expecting some refuges that needed to be transported to another planet. And you don't look like refugees. Not that there is anything wrong with you guys." he said as they looked at each other.

"We have the naquada." the guy on the right said. The left guy opened the box to show two rows of black cases.

"Refined weapons grade." he said.

"Oh, that's nice." Ford and Carter would love to get there hands on that!

"This is the price we agreed upon. The ship is impressive in size, but we cannot…"

"Okay, you know what. There has been a serious misunderstanding. I don't care what you got, I'm not going to sell you the ship, so…"

They raised their hand gun and he raised the zat gun.

"Okay, that is not necessary."

"We had a deal! We must have this ship!"

Several loud shots from energy guns were heard from above as the Prometheus came under attack by Goa'uld gliders. It's shields were not up so it took full impacts.

"Goa'uld gliders! Fool, you were followed!"

"Of course we were." Daniel muttered as the ship took more poundings.

"Okay, you know what, I'd love to stay and chat, but…" he said shooting the guy on the right.

He dropped and his friend shot Daniel. Daniel noticed the armor withstood the impact and he shot the other guy and then ran into the ship. Daniel came into the ship as alarms went off and things exploded around him as he tossed off the armor heading for the bridge.

"Daniel, what's going on?" she asked as he took a seat in the chair.

"We are being attacked by gliders!! Tell me how to access the ships systems!!!"

"Let me out and I will help you."

"You've got to be kidding me!!" he yelled.

She shrugged on the screen at the ship rocked from another impacted and something on the bridge blew out. He got up rushing down. When he opened the door she was smiling brightly.

"Let's go." he said keeping the zat on her.

"What about my buyers?"

He groaned.

"We'll talk about that later."

"And the naquada?" she said stopping.

He kept pushing her along. "Move!"

"Do you have any idea what that is worth?!" she said stopping and turning to yell at him.

He didn't have time for this as he picked her up putting her over his shoulder. She grunted and groaned as they raced through the ship to the bridge. He set her down and rushed over to the console that flew the ship. She got in the chair just to the right of the command chair.

"All right, raise our shields."

Daniel pushed a few buttons and the system said they were active. The ship took off slowly as the gliders kept firing, but not hitting the ship instead.

"What are you waiting for? Let's go to hyperspace!"

"I can't. It's not working. We've already taken too much hull damage. We have incoming." she said. "It's Al'kesh. Arm weapons."

Daniel did so as a system behind them blew sparks everywhere. The ship left the planet as the two Al'kesh came at it firing. The shields held as she fired back at the Goa'uld vessels, but just barely.

"Shields failing!" Vala said.

Daniel kept the weapons firing. Outside the gliders were still firing away when suddenly one of the ships blew up. The ship rocked badly again as wires and pipes hung in different places.

"And shields are down. We are almost out of weapons." she announced.

The ship stopped rocking as they watched a glider blow up and an Al'kesh pass right by the bridge quickly.

"What just happened?"

"A Al'kesh just blew up one of its own." Daniel said confused as well.

"Nice work Sergeant. Target the second Al'kesh. Fire at will."

"Yes sir." Walter said happily.

He swooped under the Prometheus following the other Al'kesh and blew it up where anyone on the bridge could see.

Vala reached over activating the com when the ship was hailed.

"Doctor Jackson. This is General Hammond. Do you copy?"

Daniel got up and grabbed the zat pointing it at her as he sat in the command chair.

"General, it's me. Good to hear your voice sir." he said glad for happy news.

"Likewise. You alright son?"

Daniel looked at her a moment before responding. She smiled lightly.

"We're fine sir."

"Are we clear to ring aboard?"

"Stand by." he said closing the channel. "Unlock the system."

She sighed.

"Look, those gliders probably came from a nearby mothership. Now would you unlock the system?"

She nodded and did so.

"You're all clear sir." Daniel called back as he leaned into the chair tired.

"What are you going to do with me?" she asked slowly.

"I'm not sure." he said grimly.

"Look, Daniel, whatever happens, I just want you to know…" she started saying when she grunted as Daniel shot her.

She looked at him then dropped back into the chair unconscious. Daniel dropped the zat to his lap and shook his head.

Later the Al'kesh was flying in front of them while the Prometheus followed along.

"We managed to get the shields and hyperdrive back online, but there was significant hull damage." Lindsey said as she, Daniel and Hammond walked through the corridors of the ship. "I wouldn't recommend a long journey through hyperspace."

"Then we have no choice, we have to return to Earth." Hammond said.

"How long will it be before the ship is ready to go again?" Daniel asked as they stopped.

"Hard to say."

"Good work Doctor, both here and on the Al'kesh." Hammond said.

"Thank you sir." she said smiling then started walking away when Daniel called out to her.

"Hey, hiccups are gone." Daniel said.

"I hadn't even noticed." she said smiling with surprise. "I guess I was having to much fun."

The alarms went off suddenly as Walter signaled everyone the prisoner had escaped. Hammond and Daniel ran off quickly. She looked up, waited, and nothing happened.

"Wow." she said smiling as he ran off too.

Hammond came onto the bridge quickly.

"Status?" he asked sitting down.

"Security team one non responsive. The rings on level four just activated sir." Walter said.

Daniel came down and through the doorway to ring room four finding SG-3 on the ground. He shook his head and knelt down grabbing a CB unit.

"General Hammond. SG-3 is here. She's on the Al'kesh."

They watched through the bridge windows as the ships engines came online and it flew away.

"Lock weapons on its engines." Hammond ordered.

"Aft thrusters targeted."

Daniel rushed onto the bridge breathing hard.

"Target is…."

The ship suddenly jumped into hyperspace.

"It's gone sir."

"Can we track it?"

"No sir. Our long range scanners are being scrambled."

"She's good." Daniel said shaking his head.

Sometime later……

The ship landed and Hammond said he was sorry they couldn't go until another time. When that was, it was hard say at the moment.

Daniel got off the elevator finding his team and Jack standing there. Jack was really smiling.

"How much do you know?" he asked getting off knowing something was up.

"Enough." Jack said crossing his arms.

"For you Jack, that could mean many things." Daniel said setting his bag on the floor.

"He's got a point." Ford said.

Jack held up a finger at him then turned back to Daniel. "I want to hear it all. How you stayed on the ship. How you saved the ship. Everything. And leave nothing out about the woman you had to fight too."

Daniel didn't like the look on Jack's face after that. He was going to be picked on for a long time for this.