CHAPTER 79
EPISODE……………..OFF THE GRID
They were all on a planet with lush forest, kinda like a bunch of birch trees type of forest. Currently, they were running for their lives firing weapons similar to a type of Earth style Uzi as they ran down a path back to the Stargate. The Uzi like weapons had small hand holds underneath to help with firing, scopes on top and even metal shoulder guards. They all were in leather outfits, rather messed up and slightly damaged, that made them look a lot like smugglers or bounty hunters. Various buckles, belts, and leather sashes covered the outfits. Mitchell's outfit covered him except for his forearms. Teal'c's was a lot like the Jaffa armor when he wore the chain mail vest, except this wasn't chain mail. Daniel's was also a vest type, just a bit bigger in coverage and he had gauntlets like the others. Carter had the same type of outfit, except it showed a bit of her cleavage and she had a long coat that was almost like a cloak. Ford was also in the same sort of outfit as the other's, with nothing on him showing except his head. Even part of the tattered leather outfit was around his neck like a turtle neck sweater. No armored coat and no personal cannons.
Mitchell screwed up, badly. This was definitely going on his record. Ford had thought it was a rather bad idea, and let him go anyway. Which lead them to their current predicament. And it was pissing him off. As gun fire erupted into the ground behind them, they took cover behind a large tree. Carter gave one of the guns over to Mitchell as she returned fire with the rest of them. The other's got down firing back as well as Mitchell got his gun ready.
"What the hell did you say to them?!" Carter asked.
"I should have been the one to go." Ford muttered firing back with a weapon he didn't like.
"Look, obviously it didn't go so well." Mitchell said before returning fire.
"Ya think?!" Ford yelled.
Daniel ran up to a set of rocks near the DHD to cover them. Ford dashed over and jumped a section of rocks.
"I did advise that you were a unlikely drug smuggler Colonel Mitchell!" Teal'c stated returning fire.
"Could we please, just fall back to the gate?!"
They returned fire, while running. As soon as they got under the cover of the rocks, they returned fire while Daniel tried to dial them out. Ford, who managed to stash his coat and one of his guns, was now on his feet firing his personal cannon. He missed and took out a tree as the large group of people they pissed off came at them, and took cover from the shots that the other's fired at them and the tree that almost hit them.
"We cannot hold this position!" Teal'c stated as Daniel was pushing the dial out buttons.
"Gotta wait for Daniel!" Ford shouted firing back.
The ground erupted near the group firing at them, and it was hard to tell with the dust if he hit anyone.
Daniel was pushing the last symbol in when the gate suddenly vanished. The other people firing at SG-1 noticed and some of them stopped firing. Ford even stopped and turned around.
"Oh great. This is just prime! Daniel, please tell me that the gate wasn't beamed away, like it sounded?!" Ford shouted as he waved his gun at the gate.
"I…."
"What?!" the other's yelled turning around.
8 hours earlier……………
In a metal top and bottom shaped octagon container, glass between the two, being held by a metal spike that came from the bottom plate, was a corn on the comb spear. It was not yellow, far from it in fact, to the point it looked like car fluids were dumped on it making it have a variety of brown, black, red and greens. The top lid said BIO-HAZARDOUS CONTAINMENT UNIT 24-36378.
Ford sat where he always did spinning the tube slowly as he looked at it. Carter on his right with Daniel, Mitchell and Teal'c on his left. Colonel Reynolds sat down at the end near Teal'c.
"It's called Kassa." Reynolds said.
"That looks like corn." Mitchell said.
"It is corn." Ford said. "Just a mutated and dangerous form from what the short report said."
"I thought it was indigenous to North America." Daniel said.
"It is, mostly." Ford said still turning it. "Though I did remember we found potatoes on one planet once. Well, not SG-1 specifically."
"It must be pretty damn tasty corn to cause all this fuss." Mitchell said. "Think you can do anything with it General?"
"Not in this state. Looks more like a Halloween decoration. I think that's the right holiday. Whatever the case, this stuff you don't eat even if you are starving." he said tapping the glass.
"I believe that Lieutenant Mooney described it as, sweet corn heaven. He even stated it was better than anything you've ever cooked General." Reynolds said.
"Well, we really know it's drugged then. Don't need no test for that. Only someone in a drug induced state would speak ill of my cooking." Ford said setting it down as his team either shook their heads or rolled their eyes. "His condition change yet?"
"He's still craving it General." Reynolds said. "He didn't even want to leave the planet. I had to restrain him to get him back here."
"That's amazing." Daniel muttered.
"Obviously you've never had my grandma's corn bread and black eyed peas." Mitchell said looking at Daniel.
"I wish I could have met that woman."
"She would have liked you General. Hell, would have feed us all as soon as we walked into the door. She was very friendly."
"So Reynolds, can you tell us about the rest of the population?" Daniel said thinking that Ford was going to comment on Mitchell's grandmother again. "Where they demonstrating the same addictive behavior?"
"You could have just asked me to get back on track Daniel. Go ahead Colonel."
Carter smiled lightly, though she looked like she wanted to laugh as Daniel and Ford seem to share a small look or glare at each other. It reminded her of Jack and Daniel going at it sometimes. A small twinge of sadness crossed her face as she wished Jack was still with them.
"I miss Jack too. It's not as fun bantering with Daniel." Ford said.
"Indeed."
"I miss those arguments. It's too easy for you to agree with me. Cut's out the fun." Daniel said.
"I wish I had been here for some of those." Mitchell said.
"Go on Colonel."
"Well, everybody was fine when we first got there. A fight broke out in the market place when supplies ran low, and my men and I had to step in to restore order. That's made Mooney want to have a taste in the first place." Reynolds said then looked at the table with worry. "I just didn't think it would…."
"Don't worry about it Reynolds. He'll recover. It's thankfully not a weapon injury." Ford said then looked at Sam. "I haven't heard from Lee yet, you?"
"No. He's still analyzing the sample." she said. "To determine whether or not it's naturally occurring."
"Which makes me wonder if the Ori have something to do with this." Daniel said.
"Doubtful." Ford said tapping the glass. "Attacking the food…..seems to weird."
"Yeah, getting them jonesing for space corn, nah." Mitchell said.
"I also do not believe that to be likely." Teal'c stated.
"Yeah, doesn't exactly fit their M.O. does it." Daniel said nodding.
"Any mention of a Prior there Reynolds?" Ford asked.
"Not that we could tell, no evidence or anything else."
"In the last session of the Interim Council, several Jaffa leaders complained about erratic behavior on several planets." Teal'c said. "We did not suspect tampering with the food supply."
"Hmm. I wouldn't be surprised if this corn was genetically changed to cause this craving effect. Did you find anything out that might tell us where this….." Ford was saying when he stopped and turned slightly to Mitchell. "Would you call this freaky corn?"
"Oh yeah, definitely." Mitchell said with a nod. "Color alone makes me think that."
"So, anything about a location on this freaky corn Reynolds?"
"Nah. I pressured one of the ventures for a gate address, but I don't know if the information is accurate." he said obviously not believing what he knew.
"Worth checking out General." Mitchell said.
"Yes." he said picking up the container. "We'll have K-9 give it a scan too. Reynolds."
"Take charge? Kinda figured that already General."
"Got him trained pretty well." Ford said as they all got up.
"Ha, ha." Reynolds said as he walked out.
SG-1 was now on a planet with large open fields of corn. Lots, and lots of corn. Acres and acres of the stuff. Miles worth. The sun was rather hot and with no clouds in the sky, it made the corn grow better.
"That's……a lot of, freaky corn." Ford muttered as they looked at it from a high position.
"Yeah, that's a lot." Mitchell muttered. "Let's go."
A man in old and ragged clothes walked up a path near one section of the massive corn crop. He was pulling a large wooden wagon, two wheeled, that had a lot of corn on it down a old road. On his left was a long wooden fence in need of some repair. He stopped near a stack and pulled a ear off. They got up from hiding in the crops as the man's back was to them, as he was trying to open the corn.
"Taste tasting the produce huh?" Mitchell asked.
The man turned to them as some of the corn he just bit into came out of his mouth. They all stepped out onto the road as he looked them over. Their stance and the fact they were all apart from each other made him think they were going to attack him.
"Please, I have two daughters." the man said in fear.
"Don't worry. We're not going to hurt you." Carter said.
"Who are you? What do you want?"
"Our names are not important right now." Ford said crossing his arms.
"But what we want is. We are looking to buy some Kassa." Mitchell said crossing his arms.
The man looked down at the ear he was holding.
"It is available at every market."
"Not on our scale." Ford said gesturing with his hands at making things bigger.
"We're looking for a sizable quantity." Mitchell said.
"I can maybe spare you one or two carts full."
"Ah." Mitchell said.
"Not high enough. We're looking for, oh say…..a few thousand….." Mitchell jerked his thumb up a few times making Ford's eyebrows rise. That wasn't part of the plan. "Million people, possibly more. All things considered, probably much higher."
"Yeah, the whole field would work." Mitchell said lowering his hand. "And more."
"This is not the way the Alliance does business." the man said.
"As in the Lucian Alliance?" Daniel asked.
"What other Alliances do we know?" Mitchell muttered.
"Many."
"The Lucian Alliance will know you have come. They have eyes everywhere." the man said in fear again.
"I don't see anyone here." Ford said looking around.
"I concur." Teal'c said.
"We need to set up a meeting." Mitchell said
"Worrel returns this afternoon."
"Worrel is?" Daniel asked.
"This is his land, his crop. He lives in a house just up the road." the man said pointing at some place behind him.
"Well, tell him Mr. Shaft would like to meet with him." Mitchell said making Carter have to look away before she laughed. Ford shot Mitchell a look while also trying not to laugh, but Mitchell wasn't looking in the General's direction and continued. "Any specific time or should I just block off the whole afternoon?"
"I can arrange it. But I must warn you, he will not take kindly to your request, or your presence."
"Hey." Ford said as the man turned to leave. "Give him this."
The man caught a very shiny gold coin, with nothing on it, and looked at it with extreme interest.
"Tell him we have a lot of that."
He nodded and picked up his cart leaving.
"What the hell was that?" Daniel asked.
"Yeah Mitchell. What are you doing? We're suppose to be keeping a low profile. You said we'd be asking questions to learn about the people who behind this." Ford asked. "Find out information, not make deals. And what was with this?"
Ford jerked his thumb up in the air a few times like Mitchell did.
"I figured the higher the number the better. If you didn't like the idea, why didn't you say something sooner? I said I might even wing it. And why'd you toss him that chunk of gold?"
"That guy probably would have thought something was up if we started arguing. I didn't have a choice. The plan was to give it over as a show of what we planned on paying in. Now that this meeting is being set up, maybe that poor man will give it to this…"
"Worrel." Daniel supplied.
"Worrel and it might calm things down. We can't afford to get into a fire fight."
"We don't even have equipment to take these guys on." Daniel said.
"I have no intention of taking anybody on." Mitchell said. "I'm posing as a buyer….."
"You?" Daniel asked as Ford failed in trying not to laugh.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence sir." he said stressing the word sir. "And no offense Jackson, but you don't strike me as the drug dealer type, in fact, you're not even close."
"I think I'm as close as you are." Daniel stated.
"Come on, you're miles away." Carter said.
"Teal'c, which one of us is closer and possibly has a better chance of not getting into a fight with this…Worrel guy?"
"I believe three of you to be equidistant." Teal'c said looking at Mitchell, then Daniel and Carter.
"Oh come on! Mary Poppins is not even in the running."
"Hey!" she exclaimed.
"That's pushing it Colonel." Ford warned.
"Sorry, but we both know she can't pull it off General." he said apologetically. "Sam doesn't have that….look we need."
"What look?" she asked.
"I can understand that part, but no names." Ford said.
"I did not include the General into the equation Colonel Mitchell. I believe he has the experience needed for this deal." Teal'c said.
"But he can't go."
"Why not? I've dealt with terrorist, mass murders, serial killers and rapist, and drug dealers before." Ford said tapping off his fingers. "I was a Colorado Federal Marshal before I started at the SGC, before that I worked with a covert government agency called…."
He stopped himself and bit back a ugly retort at himself. They all could see emotions of some past trouble cross his face.
"Covert government agency?" she asked.
"You tell me why you're better at doing this Colonel?" he asked avoiding her question.
"Well, for one thing, you've got to keep the rest of them protected in case anything does go wrong. Hell, the man said they have spies everywhere." Mitchell said waving a hand. "And you're the best one in this group that notices things before the rest of us do, generally. Besides, if something goes wrong, and they capture me, you all can go back to the Stargate and get back up. They capture you, and we have to go get help…."
"Capture me?"
"You don't have your guns or your coat and they may have lots of guns. They point is General, if they were to capture you," he said pointing his open hand at Ford. "And we had to rescue you, it would look bad to the point that the higher ups may not let you go on missions anymore. Kinda like on Star Trek where the Captain wasn't suppose to leave the ship. Besides, I'm the new guy, so if they meet me and not you guys, they hopefully won't notice I'm part of SG-1. Where the rest of you all stand out."
Ford had to admit, Mitchell had a point. He muddled it over for about ten seconds.
"I don't like this, but you're right. If I had my coat, guns aside, I would be doing this and you'd be staying back."
"I'd knew you'd see reason. Just simple logic and all."
"Don't cause any trouble if possible. Here, take a few other coins and show them to….whatever is his name, maybe things will work out better." he said as Daniel started to tell him the name. "And be careful."
"There's nothing on these." he said looking them over.
"Not suppose to be. Can't identify where they come from that way."
"How many of these do you have anyway?" Carter asked.
"Um, a lot. If this deal works, we can bring what we need or they ask."
"Let's hope this works." Daniel said.
They were all laying down on the dirt, up on a hill high above the house that the contact lived in. They were looking through binoculars down at the house seeing Mitchell laying in a large bale of hay that was in a bigger version of the cart the man with the corn had. The Stargate was just down the hill a ways in case anything went wrong.
"This was a bad idea." she muttered handing the binoculars to Ford who was on her right.
"It's been fours hours now." Daniel said from her left. Teal'c on his left looking down at the area with the same small binoculars as well.
"Why did you agree…."
"Because of that one point. If something happens to me, then the higher ups will throw a fit. Not all of them know my real condition and if I did get caught by those people, it would be bad when they found out what I am. Not to mention, a lot of people don't like me being General, and if something happened to me, it might give them an excuse and the President might demote me. Not to mention it would look bad for them."
"Which people really know?" Daniel asked.
"Other than the President." Ford said scanning the place with the binoculars. "I only know that Jack and Hammond know. If they told anyone else, I don't know it. I heard there was a few others, but I don't know who."
"When are we going to just give up and leave?"
"I was going to give it another hour, but take a look." he said giving her the binoculars back.
Daniel lifted his as well as they looked to see a large group of men walk up to Mitchell. About a dozen at most.
"They are heavily armed." Teal'c stated.
"Saw that." Ford muttered. "God I feel naked without my guns."
"You did leave one at the gate, just in case." she said.
"Still don't like the feeling of it not with me." he said as Mitchell got up from the haystack.
"This is the man I told you about." the man that set up the meeting said as Mitchell got up. "Mr. Shaft."
"Hey, you must be Worrel." Mitchell said noticing all the guns.
"Where are your friends mister?" Worrel asked. He had a open jacket on, with no shirt underneath. The jacket was a lot like a old style pilot jacket with the inside having wool, except here it was black and on the exposed collar.
"Call me Shaft. I figured you wanted to deal one on one."
"Who told you Kassa is grown here?" Worrel asked crossing his arms.
"In my business you get to know the right people."
"What right people?"
"You know, the good, the hard working type. Tell you what you want to know then disappear."
Worrel looked off to his left and made a nod gesture.
Up on the hill, they saw it and noticed through the binoculars that Worrel signaled his men to look for the rest of Mitchell's friends.
"You can go. We'll talk inside." he said looking at the man that came to him then at Mitchell.
"Great." Mitchell said as the man left quickly.
"If we remain here, we will be discovered." Teal'c stated.
"A thumbs up. I hope that is good." Ford muttered.
"You saw that?" she asked as the stayed where they were and low.
"Hey, I can hit a target at three miles with my gun remember."
"Let's hope they don't come across us." Daniel muttered.
"They get close, I'll know and quietly take them out." Ford said. "If I can without being seen."
A large metal gate was pushed open by a older man in the group. They all entered not closing the gate. Mitchell looked around seeing the open building they were in was littered with old wooden boxes against and around the large brick walls that lined the building. There was a table under a tarp set up with shelves and other assorted kitchen like items and such. A few barrels here and there and a couple of benches. Worrel stopped short of going under the trap as Mitchell and the rest stopped walking. Guns were still pointed at him, but discreetly.
"Fellows, do you think I'd carry a weapon?" he asked with his arms out as he was searched.
They nodded and Worrel felt safer.
"All right mister, what can I do for you?"
Mitchell crossed his arms and took a sterner look.
"I represent a coalition of seven planets, with a combine population of 30 million Kassa hungry souls. We're looking for a supplier."
"I don't have that kind of inventory."
"Nah, nobody does. That's why I need one. So, if you could refer me…"
"Refer you?"
"Higher up."
"You want to speak to my superior?" Worrel said insulted.
"I think our needs are enough to warrant their attention."
"Your needs?" he said then nodded to his men who grabbed his arms on either side.
"Hey, we showed you what we'd pay. In good faith I might add. I have some more in my pocket." Mitchell said.
"Yes. Some gold that looks like coins." Worrel said pulling the coin that was given to him out. Mitchell's pockets were emptied and the other three coins were given to Worrel. "Looks like this gold isn't that old."
They were looking down at what was going on and saw Mitchell taken and then the gold taken from his pocket.
"This doesn't look good." she said.
"I guess that guy doesn't like gold or isn't the currency they use." Ford muttered. "Probably wanted refined Naquada."
"Weapons grade." she muttered.
They took Mitchell and set him on the bench, holding his arms down against the top of the log.
"Exactly, just who do you think you are?"
"I told you my name." he said trying not to struggle.
"Mister?"
"Actually, it's just Shaft. Mister is more of a, courtesy title. If you could just pass that along to your superiors, that's all I'm asking."
"I'm forced to wonder what someone like yourself, a business man, representing how many planets did you say again?"
"Seven, but one of them is actually a moon, so…"
"So, 30 million potential customers. And you need me to arrange a meeting with my superiors?" he asked at the stupidity of the idea.
"Yes." Mitchell said seeing where his idea was going wrong. "You see, you are selling yourself short."
Worrel pulled his modified pistol Uzi and pointed it at Mitchell's head.
"Yeah, I think he in trouble." Daniel said.
"Dammit Mitchell. What the hell were you thinking. I should have went myself." Ford muttered seeing the gun.
"As are we." Teal'c stated looking off to his left.
"We need to move, now."
They slowly crawled backwards and down the hill, hiding in the bushes. Mitchell laughed darkly at the business end of the gun as he tried to think of a way out of his predicament.
So now, they were running for the gate. As gun fire erupted into the ground behind them, they took cover behind a large tree. Carter gave one of the guns over to Mitchell as she returned fire with the rest of them. The other's got down firing back as well as Mitchell got his gun ready.
"What the hell did you say to them?!" Carter asked.
"I should have been the one to go." Ford muttered firing back with a weapon he didn't like.
"Look, obviously it didn't go so well." Mitchell said before returning fire.
"Ya think?!" Ford yelled.
Daniel ran up to a set of rocks near the DHD to cover them. Ford dashed over and jumped a section of rocks.
"I did advise that you were a unlikely drug smuggler Colonel Mitchell!" Teal'c stated returning fire.
"Could we please, just fall back to the gate?!"
They returned fire, while running. As soon as they got under the cover of the rocks, they returned fire while Daniel tried to dial them out. Ford, who managed to stash his coat and one of his guns, was now on his feet firing his personal cannon. He missed and took out a tree as the large group of people they pissed off came at them, and took cover from the shots that the other's fired at them and the tree that almost hit them.
"We cannot hold this position!" Teal'c stated as Daniel was pushing the dial out buttons.
"Gotta wait for Daniel!" Ford shouted firing back.
The ground erupted near the group firing at them, and it was hard to tell with the dust if he hit anyone.
Daniel was pushing the last symbol in when the gate suddenly vanished. The other people firing at SG-1 noticed and some of them stopped firing. Ford even stopped and turned around.
"Oh great. This is just prime! Daniel, please tell me that the gate wasn't beamed away, like it sounded?!" Ford shouted as he waved his gun at the missing gate.
"I…." he began saying when the DHD also vanished.
"What?!" the other's yelled turning around.
"Everyone, drop your weapons." Ford said setting his gun on a rock and then raising his hands.
"What for?" Mitchell asked. "We could…."
"Run? We are surrounded." Ford grumbled as they all looked around to see other men pop up on either side of them with guns pointed.
The other's stood up after setting their weapons down.
"Great, I lost that bet with Jack." Ford said as Worrel and his men walked toward them.
Reynolds had learned from Lee earlier, with K-9's help that the Kassa corn contained a highly addictive physco-stimulant. And that is was genetically engineered. Reynolds comment to Lee that that was what General Carter thought at the time they were talking about it.
"Chevron four encoded."
"Chief, how long is SG-1 overdue again?" Reynolds asked as walked up while Walter was dialing the planet SG-1 was on.
"Two hours now sir. Colonel Mitchell has never missed a check in." Walter said.
"Chevron five encoded."
"This is not good." Reynolds muttered.
"Chevron six encoded."
"What could be holding them up?"
"Chevron seven will not lock." Walter said as they looked out finding that gate didn't open and stopped.
"Chief?"
"I don't know sir. I'm not detecting any malfunction on this end."
"Check the system and then try again."
"Yes sir."
They were all now sitting on the bench, weapons and other items removed. At least they still had their clothes on. Ford's coat was taken from him and tossed in a corner under the tarp area. Ford sat on the left end, followed by Carter, then Mitchell, Daniel and Teal'c. They all had their hands tied behind them, rather securely, for them anyway. The ropes were somewhat old and used and Ford found out quickly, with a sharp tug, he'd easily break it. At the moment, that was a bad idea, seeing as they had a lot of people in front of them, looking for an excuse to fire their weapons. They had been sitting there for a few hours now, not being able to do much other than keep quiet and watch as the men there did different things. Some sat at the table and looked like they were either eating or playing a card game, possibly. Other's were just watching them or leaning against the walls resting.
"The infamous SG-1." Worrel said as he and a couple of other men came back into the open roof building.
He tossed one of their Uzi like weapons to a guy nearby and the man took it, keeping it ready to use on them if they tried anything. Worrel pulled his modified Uzi and kept it at his side.
"Everyone, this is Worrel." Mitchell said.
"Trust me mister, you won't get the best of me this time."
"Actually, it's Mitchell. Cameron Mitchell. I tried to explain the mister thing. But he doesn't get it." he said to the team.
"How did you steal the Stargate?" Worrel asked.
"What?" both Carter's said at the same time.
"SG-1 shows up on my backwater little planet, and the Stargate vanishes."
"Not our fault." Ford stated.
"Indeed. We are not responsible." Teal'c said.
"We were here on a reconnaissance mission." Carter said.
"Ah." he said walking up and getting closer to her, which bother Ford greatly. "So, you were done slaying system lords and decided to moved onto more pressing agricultural concerns?"
"That's exactly it. Corn patrol." Mitchell said getting a backhand a second later.
"Ow." Mitchell muttered still trying to turn his head back forward.
"Uh, I have a question." Daniel said. "Why would we make the gate magically disappear before we had a chance to escape through it?"
"Bad timing?" the man said waving his arms out with the gun still in his hand.
"That's got to be the single most stupidest thing I have ever heard."
"Should have stopped Daniel." Ford muttered.
"Do things go according to plan in your world Doctor Jackson?"
Daniel looked at the others before speaking.
"No, not usually, no. But our luck has been a bit better as of late."
"Hmm. This is one of those times where it has ran out."
Daniel sighed as he looked at the ground briefly.
"And until my Stargate is returned, things will continue to go wrong."
"We don't have the gate. We have no reason that I can ever venture a guess at that would make us want to steal a Stargate. If we were going to steal it, why would we even bother to come to this, backwater little planet as you call it?" Ford said as the man started to walk away.
He walked up slowly and stood in front of Ford, trying to look imitating. He could tell Ford wasn't impressed.
"You must be that infamous new member to SG-1. Ford something?" he said snapping his fingers.
"I guess in this case my reputation doesn't precede me." Ford said with a chuckle as he gave the team a glance.
Worrel backhanded him, hard, just like Mitchell. Except in this case, Ford's head didn't move much and Worrel grabbed his hand a moment before putting it down quickly. One of his men started to ask if he was okay, but he shouted him off and yelled to have Ford's gun, which he called a large silver weapon, brought to him.
"I've heard the destructive power of this thing. Perhaps if I use it on you or one of your friends, maybe I'll get some answers." he said pointing it at Carter's head first.
"Won't work." they all said.
"The weapon has DNA imprinting/scanning system built into it. One of the reasons my personal cannon is so large. It will not fire for anyone but me." Ford stated.
Worrel pulled the trigger only to find it wouldn't move, not cock or let the hammer be pulled back.
"And before you ask," Ford said making Worrel stop messing with it. "Without it, the gun will not work, and even if I could remove it, which I can't, you don't have the right tools to even try. I built the whole gun personally, I know."
"Then your weapon is useless." he said backhanding Ford with it. He tossed it aside, and it bounced off the wall nearby.
Ford moved his jaw around a few times and felt that the impact was mostly in his mouth thankfully. Blood did trickle out of his mouth slightly, on purpose. It healed rather quickly before it pooled into his mouth too bad.
"That, was humiliating." he muttered after Worrel walked away. "And a first."
"Now who went to far?" Daniel muttered.
"So, any ideas on who did this to us?" Ford muttered spitting off to the side.
The four either said no or no idea.
"Maybe all that karma has caught up with us." Mitchell muttered.
"We've made repeated attempts to connect sir. No signal whatsoever." Walter said as he and Reynolds walked up into the Control Room. "It's got to be a problem with the off world gate."
"Get me the Colonel in command of…..the Odyssey is it Chief?"
"Yes sir. I'll get right on it." Walter said sitting in his chair again.
Up on the Odyssey, which was the same ship as the Daedalus, ship functions were still being checked over, seeing as the ship was still in shakedown mode.
"Sir, I have Colonel Reynolds for you." a man said sitting in the chair on the right of the command chair.
"Strange, wonder what he wants. Put him on the screen here."
Emerson turned to look at the screen as Reynolds came on.
"Is your ship ready to fly yet Colonel?"
"Well, 90 percent of our primary systems are up and running. Is everything okay Colonel? General Carter is usually asking this question."
"I need to know if your hyperdrive system is functional. General Carter and SG-1 are all off world and we haven't been able to get through to them for more than a few hours now. They went to P6G-452."
"We could be there in 22 hours sir." the man reported looking at his board.
"I wouldn't want to go into battle, but we can get them Colonel. I assume they have the new implanted locator chips?"
"From what General Carter has said, yes. His should stand out more or less seeing as it is encased in a…whatever that metal his guns is made out of."
"This will be a great first mission for us then. We'll have them back soon Colonel."
"Good luck Colonel. SGC out."
"Well, you heard him. Let's get this ship going. Major Marks, set a course." he said going to his seat.
"Yes sir."
"Attention all decks. This is Colonel Emerson." he said hitting the com button on the arm. "Prepare to engage hyperdrive."
He shut down the com and then had his chair move back a few feet.
"Take us out."
"With pleasure sir." Marks said.
The ship started to power up and head away from Earth when their sensors not only reported a ship coming, but they saw a ship drop out of hyperspace near them.
"Wonder what they want?" Emerson asked aloud.
"Not sure sir, but we are being hailed." Marks said.
About an hour after he left, Worrel came back and started asking questions about the missing gate, again.
"We don't know where it is." Mitchell said once again only to be backhanded again by some tall dark guy.
"I can see that you won't listen to reason and that despite whatever it is that we tell you, you're going to keep hitting us and probably shoot us until you think we will tell you what you want to know, which we can answer, so I have a big question to ask." Ford said as Daniel started to say something.
"Fine, let's here it. Afterwards, I think more drastic measures will be needed to make you all talk." Worrel said.
"We've been sitting here for, oh, five, six hours, something like that. Don't have my watch," he said and seeing that Worrel was getting impatient he hurried on. "I don't know about them, but I have to go."
"Go?" he said laughing. "You're not going anywhere until I get…."
"Not go as in leaving. Go as in relieving myself."
The other's and just about everyone else looked at him.
"H…"
"Please don't say hold it. I have been, but when you start beating on me, then I won't have as much control if you manage to knock me out, and then they'll be a mess….."
"Fine." Worrel said shouting. "Take him there and make sure he does nothing else. If he does, shoot him."
The two men nodded as they dragged Ford to his feet harshly
"You've got five minutes." he said pointing a finger in Ford's face as he was dragged to his feet. "You try anything…."
"Let's see, you and all your men here all have weapons, semi auto, we have no protection and have no weapons. Hmm, I don't see any advantage on our part so, yeah, trying something would be stupid."
He was lead out a little roughly, being held by two big men.
"Now, where is the Stargate?"
"Why is it that you can't see that we don't have it? We did not take it." Carter stated forcefully looking away from wherever Ford was lead. She figured he had some sort of plan, but whatever it was.
"If you've heard of our reputation, then ask yourself why we would bother….." Daniel began when he was struck by the back guy that struck Mitchell a moment ago.
"You are trying my patience! Where is the gate?!"
"Ford was right. What's the point of trying to tell you want you refuse to hear. You're to thick headed…."
She got backhanded across the left cheek, making blood come out the side of her mouth in a trickle. It also left small scratch marks that were bleeding slowly on her cheek. She refrained from crying out or even groaning. A roll of the jaw and a few blinks and she was okay, somewhat.
"How about we try more drastic……" Worrel began saying when a couple of his men behind him suddenly slammed into the wall, hard.
A few other's followed before Worrel also was tossed. The team heard a unrecognizable voice say in Goa'uld, heads up before the bench was knocked backwards. They could hear some gun fire, but mostly it was yelling and someone hitting someone. They saw a pair of feet fly over them, twice, before hearing a loud thud into a wall. The bench suddenly came up with a loud and shaky hit to the ground. All of Worrel's men were knocked out or in some sort of pain that they weren't going to move. They didn't see anybody, but did notice that there ropes were now undone. A few places on the walls had some blood, not a lot, but enough to notice.
"I'm more than willing to bet that…."
"Yes Mr. Shaft. I did this." a pained and irritated voice said. "Now get up and tie them or do something to them before they can get up. I need a minute to recover."
They looked around but saw no one there. Until they heard a strange shimmering and saw Ford sitting on the bench rubbing his arm, leg and his left side which had got shot, but were healing.
"Want to let us in on how…."
"Lord Haikon was kind enough to give me one of those cloak items as a gift, along with the other ones for research." he said lifting his leather shirt to show off the Starfleet buckle. "I just hid the device in this."
"And were you ever going to tell us about…."
"Didn't think about it really. Mostly don't want many people to know, because the N.I.D. would want to take it. I'm still in the process of duplicating the technology."
"He's got a point there." Daniel said as he sat down rubbing his jaw.
Teal'c nodded his thanks before helping Mitchell with the others.
"You took your time." she said rubbing her face slightly as he got up.
"Who hit you and more importantly, are you okay?"
"Thanks for noticing us too?" Daniel muttered.
"I can tell your jaw is bruised Daniel, not broken, and the same will be with Mitchell. Other than the split lip Cam has too. Don't have any ice or medical supplies so I can't do anything. Are you okay?"
"Really, yes. I was in worse shape that time you hit me. Hell of a lot more dazed too. This is nothing." she said waving her hand.
Ford was helping pick up the other's when he noticed he wasn't getting help.
"What are you guys doing? Help me before they get up."
"You hit Sam?" Daniel asked with a particular look that wasn't pleasant and was being shown by Mitchell. Teal'c actually looked like he was about to charge Ford if he didn't have a good answer.
"Relax guys." she said walking up to Worrel who was starting to wake up. "He didn't hit me on purpose. At least, not intentionally."
Worrel opened his eyes and saw her standing there with her arms crossed and a particularly hateful expression. That went away as he cried out in pain as she kicked him in the nuts. He doubled over holding himself as she turned away.
"I didn't like that lustful look in his eyes he gave me before Ford showed up."
"So, let's hear the story behind him hitting you." Mitchell said still giving Ford that look still.
"Good grief guys." Ford said picking up Worrel and tossing him onto the bench rather harshly, and then placing his arms out from his body, he tied his hands to the upper part. "We were sparring, I didn't pull my punch as well as I should have…"
"I didn't duck in time and was a little to close. I've been hit a few times before as well, nothing extremely serious, just that time I was just a little slow."
"It was a accident and happened months ago. Now you can either all stand there and keep giving me looks like I'm some sort of wife beater, or you can move your asses and help like the good soldiers I ordered." Ford said as he picked up another guy and tied his feet and hands before setting him against the wall with a few other's that were already done.
A short time later, they were all tied up and gagged. Mostly because they started shouting and making threats.
"Now what?" Mitchell asked.
"I'm betting this ass here has a ship somewhere." Ford said thumping Worrel on the forehead rather harshly. "Let's…….no, you and Daniel go look around. The three of us will look around here and make sure they don't get free or anything."
"Someone out there is stealing Stargate's?" Reynolds exclaimed as he look at the report Walter gave him.
"Well, four that we know of sir." Walter said standing on the other side of the desk. "According to the Tok'ra dispatch."
"That's got to explain why we can't get hold of SG-1."
"Exactly sir. In fact, the Trust tried this once with our gate."
"Yeah. If it wasn't for the rest of SG-1 being there, we wouldn't have our gate back. Um, is there any ships that we know of that can steal gates and hold them? A Goa'uld mothership perhaps?"
"Not with Asguard beaming technology. Which one eye witness was able to confirm being used sir."
"Better send this information to the Odyssey Chief. The General will want to see it."
"We'll send it in a data encryption sir."
"Good idea."
"I need to make a phone call." he said sitting down.
Nerus was sitting in his cell, not happy with what was happening, but had not been able to do anything about it. Two guards that changed every so often, but where always there outside the cell 24 -7 stood by the locked door. It buzzed and a General in a khaki uniform walked in. A General they thought was in Washington, but heard that he was coming.
"General."
"As ease." Landry said. "Hopefully I can be of some help other than with what I do with General O'Neill. So, you're this Nerus guy. My name is General Landry."
"Hmm. They told me a General was coming to see me. I wondered if it was going to be General Carter. He made such incredible meals." Nerus said with a sigh. "Why are you here instead of him hmm?"
The metal cell door was opened by another guard that also had the same shift as the other two. Landry walked in and up to the bars that Nerus was behind. Nerus had a table, which he was currently sitting behind, a small cabinet in the corner, a toilet near the bed and a lamp to read with on top of the cabinet.
"You come to visit a condemned prisoner empty handed?" he said looking and seeing nothing was in Landry's hands.
"You aren't a condemned prisoner Nerus. Just a prisoner." Landry said as he began pacing the floor. "I'm here because of a problem at the SGC. From what General Carter told us, and a few other's that knew about you personally or otherwise, they managed to leave some instructions on how we might get information from you. I've noticed that so far, nothing has came across my desk about you recently other than the fact you refuse to say anything. But something has came up, which makes other possibilities to arise."
"Ah. You need to know information pertaining to my technical expertise."
"No." he said shaking his head with a smile. "It may or may not help. Now, you give me the information I need, and you have my word that you'll have more food than what General Carter gave you. Everything that is used in that facility comes across my desk, so I know exactly what he used to cook for you. Not to mention I viewed the tapes of the conversations he and SG-1 had while you were eating."
"A feast bigger than what he made." Nerus said as his mouth watered. Every meal he had had was bread and water.
"Yes, a great big feast."
"How may I be of service then dear General?"
"Someone out there is stealing Stargate's. I need to know who, how and why." Landry said tapping off fingers.
"Stealing them?"
"Beamed right off the planets with Asguard technology, as far as we know."
"Well, that must be maddening for you."
"It is. Not many people are happy with the idea of General Carter being off world with his team. In this case, he's stuck off world with them." Landry said turning away. "We have a pretty good idea who is doing this though."
"If that is the case dear General, then why do you need me?"
"Because of a theory, we still need answers to." he said turning back to the cell. "Now, you going to help or are you going to continue with the bread and water deal?"
"Hmm. The famous SG-1 is stuck on another planet and can't get home. This information is very important to you. Perhaps we can discuss my dietary requirements then…."
"The more you try to negotiate, the more items I take off the menu until you will eventually be left with vitamin and mineral enriched water. You won't even have bread anymore. I'll come back later after you've thought awhile." he said turning to the guard who looked at the camera.
The door opened and he walked out leaving Nerus to think.
A few of them tried to break free and try something, only to get knocked out for causing trouble. Ford said it was an example to the others and stated if they kept it up, he'd take them outside and shoot them. He wasn't kidding either. So far, Worrel refused to tell them where his ship was and though Daniel and Mitchell looked around, and eventually Teal'c did too, they couldn't find it. They figured it was cloaked somewhere, and probably pretty far away.
"This is going to be a long time wait until someone comes isn't it?" Mitchell asked from where he was sitting on a wooden barrel.
"Well," Ford said from where he was sitting just down from Worrel. He had one of the knives they found out and was still cutting some long inch thick pole he found. "The Tok'ra may come and get us. Or, if this jerk here has friends that come check on him if he doesn't make a scheduled appearance, we could take their ship. Or one of the Jaffa may come, but that could be awhile. Though highly unlikely, seeing as the last report to cross my desk showed our newest ship, the Odyssey, was only sixty percent functioning, and that didn't include the hyperdrive."
"When was that report?" Carter asked leaning against the wall near Ford.
"About a week ago."
"All things considered, the ship should be almost fully functional by now. Including the hyperdrive." she said.
"Maybe they are on their way then." Daniel said from a wooden chair he was straddling near Mitchell.
"Still takes almost two days to get here from Earth." Ford said. "We are that far away, right Sam?"
She thought a moment before nodding.
"Yeah. Been that long already."
"Two days of waiting and still nothing." Mitchell muttered. "What are we going to do for food? We've just about ran out of what he's had here but it hasn't been all that great."
"Well, I can check out the local plant life and see what is edible, or find out from anyone here. Maybe that guy that set us up with this ass here can help." he said pointing the knife blade at Worrel.
"And what do we do if no one shows up?" Daniel asked.
"Someone will eventually show up Daniel. We're SG-1. Pretty much the most important team at the base. Besides, the government, or certain members will do something through the SGC to try and find me personally before a month passes."
"And if we are gone longer than a month?" Mitchell asked.
"All hell breaks loose when the media sees all the dark secrets of the American, British and Russian governments for the last couple hundred years or so. That is if Walter says the wrong things to the people who would call him if we are gone that long."
"Walter?" the three said.
"You are referring to Chief Walter Harriman are you not?" Teal'c asked from where he was standing off to Ford's left.
"The only Walter I know. He's the only one who knows what to do if I am gone to long. In this case, we shouldn't have to worry about anarchy taking place. I didn't die or get lost because of the Trust or anything like that." he said looking the cut pole over before turning it around to finish the handle part of the Kendo he was making. "Unless the Trust are behind the theft of the gates, but I think Ba'al is probably behind this."
"That would make sense. He does have access to a lot of the technology that Anubis left behind, one of which was Asguard transporters." she said.
"Isn't it suppose to be called Asguard beaming technology?" Mitchell asked.
"It's the same thing. I just prefer the Star Trek analogy." Ford said.
"He's used it so often I started to do the same." she said.
"Any ideas or theories as to why he's stealing the gates, if it is Ba'al." Daniel asked.
"Nothing yet. Other than maybe to keep the Ori from sending Priors maybe, but there is so many Stargate's out there and not even a mothership is capable of holding more than…." he said rolling the pole as he thought.
"Probably fifty or more maybe." she said.
"Ba'al doesn't have many ships that we know of." Daniel said.
"Any idea how many Teal'c?" Mitchell asked. "Seeing as the Jaffa has most of them."
"One or two perhaps Colonel Mitchell. We are unfortunately unaware of the exact number. Nor have we ever located the real Ba'al."
"That ship that Anubis had when he had that….red crystal, whatever it was called that the then ascended Daniel had you guys give over before I showed up. That ship was huge but couldn't hold more than a hundred or so."
"Indeed."
"None of this helps us get off this planet." Mitchell said.
"We just have to wait and see if anyone will show up. If not, we know one of these guys here will start talking." Ford said.
"Are you sure that feeding them the Kassa is a good idea?" Daniel asked.
"Would you prefer I torture them until they tell me what we need to know? I could get them to talk in….less than five minutes, at most, but I don't want to implore that…form of torture, unless it became an emergency." he said trailing off at the end. "Besides, this way they we'll know how others they've been selling this stuff to feel. Been two days without food and I can see a few of them are starting to crack."
"Five minutes? What sort of…."
"Nothing I care to repeat…." Ford was saying when they suddenly disappeared in a transporter beam.
Landry was sitting outside the cell while Nerus was eating on a turkey and several other dishes.
"General, this turkey is incredible. As great as General Carter's was." Nerus said around the food in his mouth.
"Glad you approve. Now, if you want more later, how about telling me some thing I need to know."
"You already know who's behind this."
"It is Ba'al?"
"Of course it is Ba'al!" he said biting into a glazed pretzel donut. "Who else would it be?"
"Why is he doing it?"
"You're the genius. You tell me."
"Maybe you don't need anymore food then." he said getting up.
"No, General. No, no, no." Nerus said quickly. "I meant that in the most sincere form of flattery. You are one of the more intelligent forms on human beings I've had the pleasure of meeting."
"Information Nerus." he demanded.
They were all standing near each other, and looking out the window of a ship.
"Glad to see you're all still alive SG-1." Colonel Emerson said.
They turned to see they were on the bridge of the Odyssey.
"Welcome aboard the Odyssey."
"Thank you sir." she said relieved.
"Same here." Daniel said.
Teal'c only nodded.
"Damn good to see someone we know. Of course, I actually expected to see Thor or another Asguard." Ford said shaking the Colonels offered hand.
"Why's that General?"
"The transporter. I didn't think the ship was ready to leave Earth yet. Glad to see your crew proved me wrong. I'll see to it they get commendations in my report when we get back."
"They'll all be happy to hear that General. I'm going to assume you'll all want to get into better and I have to say, less smelling clothes?"
"Infirmary first." Ford said.
"Airmen, please escort them there and then show them where to get proper clothes."
"I'm willing to bet there is some reports of something from the SGC for me." Ford said as they other's started leaving.
"You know your people well. I do have a encrypted communiqué from the SGC along with a few other things for you General."
"We'll look it over in a bit then. Thanks again for showing up. This group was really beginning to complain."
"Only about the food." Mitchell said as they all started leaving the bridge. "Admit everyone, he's done much better with less."
"Indeed."
"Oh come on! I didn't know what some of that stuff was and I couldn't use the corn….."
The bridge crew heard Ford say this and couldn't help but laugh at the banter going on between SG-1 as they got out of range of hearing the rest.
"At least they are still in good spirits." Emerson said also chuckling.
After getting a change of clothes and better food, the Odyssey was now in hyperspace. SG-1, in the black outfits, were at a briefing table waiting for Colonel Emerson to show up. Ford was sitting next to Carter with Mitchell next to her. Daniel and Teal'c were on the other side. He walked through a door with another man following him that was holding a few big laptop like objects.
"Hey Colonel." Ford said.
Emerson nodded in respect to him and the other's.
"I know it's been a hard couple days for you all."
"We managed." Mitchell said. "Food was bad…."
"I think I got the picture already Mitchell. I can't cook food I don't know very well."
"Here's that intel General." Emerson said handing one of the objects to Ford and sitting in the head chair. The other guy handed more to the rest of everyone else.
"Damn You're hunch was right. Ba'al is behind all of this." Mitchell muttered.
"Worse, he's been at it for quite some time." Ford muttered.
"Several weeks in fact, and from all over this sector." Emerson said.
"Wonder where he's putting them?" Ford muttered scrolling through the info.
"Any ideas why?" she asked.
"Not yet. Nor do we know where he is either." Emerson said.
"What of the Lucian Alliance?" Teal'c asked.
"For the moment, General Landry considers this our top priority."
"Landry?" Ford said. "Why? And when did he take over?"
"Colonel Reynolds asked for him to see if he could get any information out of that Goa'uld back in Area 51. Seeing as you were not available, Reynolds figured that Nerus might know something and be willing to help if he tempted his hunger."
"Intel from Nerus. That's great." Mitchell muttered.
"Such intelligence cannot be reliable." Teal'c stated.
"I'm not sure. Nerus did work for Ba'al for centuries." Daniel said. "It's a good place as any to start."
"Reynolds must have remembered that list of ideas to use if we had to ask Nerus for anything. Hope he remembered to tell Nerus that if he pulls a fast one on us, he won't even begin to understand what regret truly is." Ford said.
"Nerus, you have the most atrocious table manners I have ever seen." Landry said seeing food on the floor and a few other places. Like the bars.
"General please, you forget, that despite appearances, I am not human." he said wiping his mouth.
"Why does Ba'al want a dozen Stargate's?"
Nerus looked up as the guard pointed a gun at him and the door opened to let another guard in that had another plate of food.
"Nerus?"
"Dessert!"
Landry shook his head.
"You positively read my mind, come in, come in!" he said as they set the large tray of cup cakes down.
Landry got up to leave.
"Well, you so cleverly figured out the perpetrator, why do you think he wants the Stargate's?"
"We assume he intends to offer them back to the planets he stole them from in exchange for some sort of payment."
"You're not very intelligent are you General."
"What is the real reason Nerus, or else everything you have left there will be taken away and you'll have only that water I mentioned."
"You have to think like a Goa'uld General." he said sitting back and thinking. "What is it, that Ba'al once had? Think of it, now think, of what he has lost."
"He's starting over."
"Precisely. There's still hope for you yet." he said smiling brightly. He played with his napkin before he continued. "Ba'al came to me once, looking for a way to rebuild in case the Jaffa ever succeeded in conquering the Goa'uld. Now I had been studying the Stargate system for months, to help you defeat the Replicators incidentally."
He said this then had a nice short laugh about it before turning serious.
"And I stumbled upon a way to disable the correlative update program."
"So you could have a Stargate and not have it transmit its new position to the rest of the program."
"Precisely. So it would seem that Ba'al, has put my research into practice." he said still with the serious tone.
"Which leads us to where?"
"I have a theory General." he said offhandedly. "But no assortment of cheeses, however delicious, could possibly compel me to tell you that."
"What did you have in mind?"
"My freedom."
"Absolutely not."
"Once he has set the program, it will be impossible to detect." Nerus said calmly as Landry started walking out. "Time is short General."
"Your freedom just isn't on the table Nerus. I'm sure there has to be something else we can offer."
"My dear General." he said extremely serious as he set the napkin down. "I rarely say this, so please take it to heart when I say, that for the moment, I am full."
Not long after they were beamed away, Worrel and the rest of his men were able to get free. After yelling at his men for incompetence and smacking the two that let Ford get free, he went to his well hidden and cloaked ship, going to the Lucian Alliance. The Lucian Alliance and some of their mother ships were orbiting a large planet that looked mostly like a desert type. Worrel walked onto the bridge, with his head mostly down while two guards followed with modified pain sticks.
"What were you thinking Worrel?" Netan, the man that was in charge of the Alliance asked. He kinda looked like he was of an American and Japanese descent. Probably was once one of Yu's followers.
"Please don't kill me." Worrel begged.
"Why would you think that?"
"Because the last time you said that to someone…."
"SG-1 did not steal the gate. They would not be so foolish to do so and then let themselves be trapped there. Further more, you let them take you and your men out. Correction, you let this vaunted Ford take out you and your men." he said turning to yell at the Worrel. "Two days and you couldn't even come up with a way to break free and bring them back under your control. And now two thirds of our crops will rot uselessly."
"I…um…"
"Don't bother." Netan said turning to look back out the window. "If half the stories are true about this man and SG-1, then you are lucky to even be alive."
"I will avenge this." Worrel stated fiercely.
Netan laughed.
"They are of no consequence. Earth and SG-1 are not important. We have spies everywhere. Leave them alone for now. Until I know more about this Ford, we do nothing. Find out who really took the Stargate, and don't bother returning with yourself."
"Yes Netan."
The gate room was set up with lots of men at ready as Nerus was shown into it. He was back wearing his roman like attire. Two large crates were being sent with Neru's on his trip to a planet he gave coordinates to go to for his freedom. The crates were full of cupcakes. Though it was rather hard, through a nice plan that was currently ongoing, Neru's was being given his freedom. He gave the coordinates were Ba'al was at, and was being let go as part of the deal. General Landry stayed at the base, to take over temporarily, seeing as he was there to send off the ugly eater.
"Putz." Landry said as the gate shut off.
"Do you want me to dial the coordinates he gave us sir?" Walter asked as Landry walked up into the control room.
"Don't bother Chief. It's probably some black hole or something worse. I'm going to go look around, so call me if I'm needed Chief. Colonel Reynolds, care to give me a tour?"
"Yes sir."
A little bit later, Landry was in Ford's office drinking a cup of coffee as he looked over various files that started to back up. Walter entered as he knocked on the door.
"Chief?"
"We are picking up a subspace signal from the beacon."
"That was fast." he said sitting back.
"Yes sir. Looks like you were right. He went back to Ba'al."
"Send the coordinates to the Odyssey. ASAP."
"Yes sir. Sir, if you don't mind me asking?"
"How did we plant the beacon on Nerus?"
"Yes sir."
"It was a piece of cake."
Walter didn't get it at first, then it clicked.
"Ah. Rather ingenious sir."
"Yep."
"Is there anything I can get for you sir?"
"No. I won't be here all that long, though from what little I've been able to see, I think I would have fit pretty well in here. Some of the rules General Carter has going aren't all that out of regulation, and I've read the reports about the moral around here. Alas, the only thing I can't do is cook like he does."
"If you need anything sir, you know where to find me."
On the Odyssey, they were sitting still waiting to see if they were going anywhere other than back to Earth. The crew was going about finishing the rest of the ship that they could while also checking to make sure the ship stayed functioning. Daniel was standing next to the console that Marks was working on. The rest of the team was looking at the large glass panel with information on it, with Colonel Emerson at the back of the bridge. Both Carter's did what they could to help with the ship with what time they had.
"Sir, we are receiving a subspace transmission from the SGC." Marks said.
"What does it say?" Ford asked.
"It's a set of coordinates."
"Ba'al." Daniel said leaning on the top of the console as he read it.
"It seems this General Landry was indeed successful." Teal'c said.
"Colonel, is this Odyssey ready to fight?" Carter asked.
"The shields have only been tested in simulation, but our weapons and navigation are online."
"Better have the crew go over the shields systems now then. We're going to need them." Ford said.
"We taking him down then General, or I should say again?"
"Yes. Accept, this time, I want a prisoner. If possible." Ford said as Colonel Emerson relayed orders to have the shields checked and the coordinates they received headed for.
The ship jumped to hyperdrive quickly while SG-1 left the bridge.
"How nice! You came to greet me in person!" Nerus said as he left the room where he just left the Stargate. From another planet. "Oh, oh! I have this fabulous innovation I want you to try…."
He went to open one of the crates that a Jaffa was holding but instead got back up and went toward Ba'al who was flanked by two other Jaffa.
"It's called a cup cake! It's so good…"
Ba'al held up a finger.
"Why have you returned?" he asked in his Goa'uld voice as he went back to his crossed arms and mean look.
"My old friend. You wound me deeply." he said in a wounded voice.
Ba'al laughed lightly.
"I am capable of wounding you much more deeply. I thought you made yourself quite comfortable with the Tauri, or was it, the Ori?" he said snapping his fingers.
The Jaffa walked up and pointed their now active staff weapons at Nerus.
"You, you actually believe…." he said laughing. "That I would defect to the Ori?!"
He laughed harder then shook his hands.
"No, no, no! It was a temporary lapse of judgment, I admit, but I have never, in…..in my life, wavered in my devotion…..sire." he said practically begging without begging.
"Are you certain you were not followed?" he asked after snapping his fingers to make the Jaffa back off.
Nerus looked insulted then smiled.
"I am a genius you know."
"So you insist." Ba'al said waiting for a better explanation or story.
"Yes, and so I have proven, in my service to you, time and time again." he said happily to which Ba'al nodded slightly. "Do you know how many Stargate's I had to go through to get here?"
He held up a hand and shook it.
"Five Stargate's! And that kind and naive General promised me that he wouldn't. Well, he gave me his word…." Nerus said as they took off down the hallway with the Jaffa behind them.
"If you wish to return to my court Nerus, you have to prove yourself." Ba'al said as they rounded a corner.
"How?"
"Find me planets suitable for my new empire. I am ready to begin anew."
"Well, first I must recover from my…" Nerus said then stopped in some shock as he watched two more Ba'als walked up a corridor on their left and turn going down the hallway in front of them. Another Ba'al was following them he noticed. "Harrowing ordeal."
"It would not be wise to defy me Nerus."
Nerus looked down at the floor, almost like he was a defeated man or something worse.
"Things have changed considerably since you left." Ba'al said happily before turning and walking away again.
The were still in the briefing room on the Odyssey. There was a 2d picture of the a Goa'uld mothership on the blue screen showing a 4d view of it. On the left side of the screen was four boxes giving detailed information. Carter was pointing out things about it while standing near the left side of the screen. While the other's were either standing or sitting on the edge of the table, Ford was on the other side of the screen watching with his arms crossed. Colonel Emerson and Mark were behind him watching.
"From what little we know of Ba'als ship, there's only one cargo hold big enough to store all the Stargate's." she said pointing a laser pen to make the picture change to bring a close up of the inside where the cargo hold was.
"He did some heavy modifying." Ford said.
"Very heavy." she said. "There could be a lot of them there."
"We just have to beam on the ship, get to the cargo hold and plant these things on the gates." Mitchell said picking up a small locator beacon on the table.
Daniel was sitting next to him and took it from him to look at it.
"Locator beacons." Daniel said.
"They only operate through subspace, so they shouldn't be detected." she said.
"Basically, we go tag them like Mitchell said, beam them up, and then get ourselves beamed out." Ford said.
"Hopefully without much trouble or Ba'al noticing." she said.
"Won't Ba'al be able to detect the Odyssey? And even if they don't, how will you be able to beam through his shields?" Mark asked.
"That's already been taken into consideration." she said smiling lightly.
"Yep. A really nice plan is in the works. For a genius Goa'uld, Nerus is rather stupid, not to mention gullible." Ford said.
"I don't understand General." Mark said.
"We learned in that last transmission from Earth that….the plan involved him and his eating obsession." Ford said with a smile. "Not to mention a few others things."
Nerus was eating a cup cake while looking over a computer console that he once worked on before. He messed with it, moving crystal objects and other items that made up the keyboard around. Beeps and clicks were heard as he activated it. A holographic screen came up above the large console. Probably about a 22 inch screen or more. The middle of the screen showed lines and lines of text running rapidly down as though Data from Star Trek was reading it. On either side of the middle section was a couple of small windows showing other information. He was frowning at it as everything around him started looking like a power failure hit the place. Lights flickered and even the sound of a power down was heard.
"Oh dear."
"Such as?" Colonel Emerson asked.
"We had Doctor Lee go over Neru's devices once before. He programmed a virus into them, one that would be hard to detect unless it was being looked for." Ford said.
"As soon as he interfaces one of them with the ship, it should kill all their systems. Shields, sensors, weapons."
"Colonel Emerson, this is the flight deck." a women said over the com. "We're coming out of hyperspace now sir."
"Understood." he said pushing a button on the wall.
They all followed and went to the bridge quickly.
"Ba'als ship should be dead ahead sir." Mark said touching his ear piece before taking his station.
"Have they detected us?" Emerson asked.
"Negative sir, but I am detecting a subspace locator code." Mark said.
"That would be Nerus." Ford said.
"It was programmed to transmit when the virus went active." Carter said.
"Nerus didn't waste time for a change." Mitchell said.
"Thank god for that. I want to get this over with and go home." Ford muttered.
"Same here." Daniel muttered.
"Let's go get ready." Mitchell said.
"What is happening?" Ba'al asked as he looked around as the ship started shutting down.
"All our systems have failed." the Jaffa at the console reported.
"How is that possible?"
"I have limited power back online." the Jaffa said bring up a 4d view of the ship on screen. A section in the ship lit up and glowed with information. "Systems are being disrupted within the ship."
Ba'al got up quickly and took off out of the bridge after seeing where the location was. The door only opened part way then creaked to a stop. He stepped through in anger and yelled at the two Jaffa to follow him.
As they were getting ready to beam over, Ford was looking through the weapons and ammo while the other's were putting their weapons on and getting ammo.
"What's wrong General?"
"I don't have much ammo for my personal cannon. Just a clip and a over half." he said then walked over to the armory guy asking for 45 caliber ammo.
"I'm sorry General. We don't have any of those rounds in stock."
"Damn. I'm…."
"General."
They all turned to see Colonel Emerson standing there holding a black metal case. A big one actually.
"What's that?" Daniel asked.
"A gift from the Asguard apparently. Thor showed up as we were…."
"Whoa!" Ford exclaimed, drawing it out as he also laughed and took the case from the surprised Colonel. "Oh please tell me what I think is in here, is in here."
The other's could almost swear by the way his mood was and the way he was acting, that whatever was in the case, he was practically about to drool over it. He stopped short of opening it as he popped to two latches.
"Oh, thank you Colonel. Ah, was there anything else?" he asked excitedly.
"He left another couple cases. One of which he stated was a special request sword or swords actually, and one metal mesh vest. He mentioned something about not having enough to make more at the moment concerning the vest and more ammo."
"Damn. I was hoping for more vest than this and the sword, but oh well. I'll get the sword later." he said then lifted the case lid slowly. "Oh yes. I am ready to take on a army now. And three fully loaded clips, oh yeah!"
"What the hell is in that case Sam?" Mitchell muttered.
"I have no idea. But it's probably….."
Ford put the two extra clips inside the larger pockets of his coat. The third he put into its slot and then cocked the gun before turning around.
Mitchell laughed, hard. Sam shook her head laughing lightly and Daniel raised an eyebrow with Teal'c.
"Okay. I think you've officially went overboard." Daniel muttered.
"Get up Mitchell. We've got work to do." he said shaking his head and leaving.
A group of Jaffa were patrolling the hallway. Most of the group turned at a junction and kept going. Two of them kept going down the hallway and then turned to go another direction as SG-1 beamed into the hallway. Ford pointed his new weapon, a fully loaded, 250 round, 45 caliber Tommy gun made of pure Adamantium, down the hallway. Teal'c had his back to him, pointing his Uzi like weapons in both directions on either side of him. Carter was kneeling and pointing down the hall to Ford's left, Daniel doing to same on his right and Mitchell kneeling in front of him pointing forward like him. Daniel and Carter both still had the Uzi like weapons. Mitchell was carrying a new type of assault rifle, one that he noticed on the ship and instantly took a liking too.
"This way." Teal'c said walking forward with his weapons at ready.
"We're in." Mitchell said through his com.
"Understood." Colonel Emerson said. "We'll hold station in beaming range."
Nerus was working on the computer, trying to get rid of the virus problem. He still had the cup cake cream on his face from when he left the SGC.
"Oh, hello. It's just a teeny tiny virus." he said after seeing Ba'al enter the room. He turned back and started working on the problem again. "I'm sure I can eradicate it in short order. As soon as I can get control of the terminal."
He said this all while laughing nervously. Ba'al was getting more infuriated by the minute.
"Oh General, you were far more devious that I thought. You disappoint me." he muttered then turned back to Ba'al with a cheerful expression "I'll…..I'll keep you informed. Thank you."
Ba'al walked over and took the staff weapon from the Jaffa as Nerus kept working on the console.
"Oh, here you are again." he said turning to see Ba'al pointing the staff weapon at him. "Oh, well, I don't think that shooting the console will help."
He stepped off to the side and Ba'al aimed the weapon at him.
"Oh, I see." he said as the weapon activated. He looked around before speaking, like he was trying to think of some way out of his demise. "I don't suppose there is anything I could say?"
Ba'al shook his head a few times.
"But I'm so interesting."
SG-1 continued down the hallways, having to avoid a few patrols.
"Damn, they are keeping a pretty good watch, without meaning to do so." Ford muttered as Teal'c looked around a corner. Just a few minutes ago, they were all almost spotted.
Teal'c nodded behind him and they took off down the corridor a ways coming upon a closed door. Daniel covered it one direction while Mitchell covered the other. Teal'c was covering both seeing as he had two weapons. Carter opened the panel and started messing with the crystals inside. Once the door started opening, Ford gave it some help making it open quicker.
"Oh my god." he muttered stepping inside to see a lot more gates than they thought.
Up on the bridge, the intrusion to the room was detected.
The other's entered the room quickly seeing the same thing.
"We're going to need more locators." Carter said as she started fishing hers out.
"Daniel, Sam, start tagging. Teal'c, you're with me keeping watch. Mitchell, call it more markers and keep watch the other direction." Ford said then stepped out to look. "I think we've been found out."
"Why?" Mitchell asked before he could get a chance to call the ship.
"Well, you'll see." Ford said stepping out and yelling. "Please don't try it guys. You'll loose."
They started raising their staff weapon, a good dozen men trying to anyway until Ford gave a good burst of his gun in their direction. He hit a few while the other's ran or dived for cover. He stopped firing as the uninjured ones kept running for cover.
"I suggest you give up!"
"What are you doing?" Mitchell asked pointing his weapon the other direction.
"Hopefully saving lives. They're just brain washed, remember." Ford muttered then burst a few rounds at a few staff weapons that were dropped that a couple Jaffa went for. "I said give up and go away! I got a lot of round for this thing and won't hesitate to use them!"
"Houston we have a small problem." Mitchell reported back as the Jaffa ran off for the moment.
"What is it Colonel?"
"We need some more beacons. Like a bag…"
"Sir. Three more motherships just dropped out of hyperspace." Marks reported.
"What?"
"We're intercepting a hail sir."
"Hal'tak vessel." they heard over the speakers. "We are the Lucian Alliance. Surrender now, or you will be destroyed."
"Lucian Alliance, this is Colonel Emerson, commander of the Earth ship Odyssey. Please respond."
"Sir, they have powered up weapons. The target appears to be Ba'als ship." Mark said.
"SG-1, be advised. Three Lucian Alliance ships just dropped out of orbit and have targeted Ba'als vessel."
"Mitchell, Teal'c, get in there and help them. I got this." Ford said pointing into the room.
"Are you sure General Carter?" Teal'c asked.
"This is me we're talking about. Just keep glancing in my direction once and a while to see if I'm still standing." he said giving off a few more burst.
He took a couple hits in the back from a few staff weapons. He spun around and fired not caring anymore only to take several hits in the back.
"Mitchell, get out here with that thing and cover me!"
Ford spun back around giving the dozen or so Jaffa several burst that took them down quickly. Mitchell fired behind him keeping him covered.
"We need to get you out of there SG-1."
"We haven't finished tagging all the gates yet." she reported back while still tagging.
"If they attack, with the shields down, Ba'als ship will not withstand it." Emerson said.
Ford kept firing as more Jaffa showed up. He noticed a part of some Jaffa armor fly up and hit the wall, and not fall.
"Oh no. Hey, better hurry in there!" he shouted loudly.
"What's wrong General?!" Mitchell yelled as he fired a few rounds.
Suddenly it was quiet. For a moment anyway until they heard more approaching.
"I pierced the damn hull from the looks of it. Body armor doesn't hang on the wall by itself." Ford said hearing a slight hissing noise. "Get back in there and help them."
"What are you…."
"I'll just keep the door covered." he said standing in the doorway. "Go."
He ran in just as a few guards came only to be cut down quickly by a quick burst.
"Status?" Ba'al asked as he entered the bridge.
Jaffa had panels pulled out, looking over the crystals.
"I have managed to restore sensors and communication." his First Prime said getting off the floor and activating the console. "I am detecting four vessels in close proximity."
"What?"
"We are being hailed."
"Put them on screen." Ba'al ordered after sitting in his chair.
"This is Natan of the Lucian Alliance." he said from a command chair on his ship. "You have cargo that belongs to us. You will surrender it and your ship, now."
"You are in no position to make such demands." Ba'al said with a laugh.
"You have no shields or weapons." Natan said. "Surrender immediately or prepare to be boarded."
"Go ahead and try." Ba'al stated and then shut off the screen.
"Fire on them.
Target weapons and hyperdrive engines." Natan ordered.
The
Odyssey, just under the three motherships, watched as several bolts
of energy fired from the three ships hitting Ba'als unprotected ship.
"Get me my shields!" Ba'al ordered as the ship shook.
"Sir, the Lucian Alliance just fired on Ba'als ship."
"SG-1, stand by for extraction." Emerson said.
"We're almost done." Carter reported back. "I'm placing the last beacon now! Go!"
"Activating transport." Mark said.
Ba'als ship took a couple more hits then the other hits hit the shields.
"I have managed to restore shields." a Jaffa reported.
"Sir? We've got a problem." Mark said.
"SG-1, Ba'als shields have been restored. You're going to have to sit tight."
"We can't sit for long!" Mitchell yelled covering Ford's back again since the gates were all tagged. "How much ammo you have left General?!"
"Still in the first clip! Have another 500 rounds left! But I think the hull breach down there might be getting bigger!"
"We fall back then!" he said entering the room quickly.
Ford followed and kept watched as the other's walked up.
"What's up?" Carter asked.
"We've got a possible hull breach that could go any minute on the far end we came from. Jaffa are still coming at us and I'm running out of ammo." Mitchell said.
"How much…."
"I still am on this clip Sam." Ford said firing a few burst as a couple Jaffa came to close to the door. He looked back at them, then at the door, then back quickly enough his neck popped audibly.
"We have a way out, possibly."
"I don't see any doors General." Mitchell said then fired as a couple Jaffa tried to enter the room.
"Sam, how long to work on that DHD and can you do it?" he asked pointing.
She looked and realized she just now noticed it was there.
"A minute maybe and I'm insulted you think I can't." she said with a frown.
"If it is all there, then I know you can, if not…."
"Good point."
"Boys, let's give her that time to check." he said walking back up to the door and firing down the hallway.
"I don't know whether to feel special or left out!" she yelled.
"Special!" all but Teal'c yelled.
"Let me know if it's all there!"
"It is! I'll have this done in about a minute!"
"Good! Colonel Emerson!"
"I guess we're about to see how the shields hold up. Put the Odyssey between us and them. Have all…."
"General Carter is calling sir."
"General?"
"Get that ship out of here as soon as you've beamed the gates out!"
"We aren't leaving…."
"Sam's working on a DHD here! We're leaving that way! So beam the gates after the shields are down again! That's a direct order!"
"Are you sure that she can…."
"I've dialed us home!" she yelled as the gate opened near them.
"Better see you pulling into orbit in two days Colonel! We're gone!"
The shields went down about ten seconds later and the Odyssey was able to get all but one gate beamed out. Ba'als ship then went up in a big explosion and Emerson got the ship out of there as the Lucian Alliance started to aim for them.
They walked down the gate, Ford more or less going a little quicker as he tossed his coat off an onto the floor. A couple of men ran up and pulled it aside to shoot it with a fire extinguisher. It had been awhile since that had to be done. The other's got off the ramp as the security forces nodded to them and lowered their weapons. Ford took the other two clips from a airman and held them under his arm while taking the Tommy gun back from Daniel.
"SG-1, good to see you home. Little surprise to see you come through the gate."
"Colonel Carter was instrumental in getting us home." Teal'c said.
"I programmed a DHD that was in his cargo hold…"
Landry waved his hand quickly.
"I can guess from there Colonel. Your husband has to be the only person I know that can understand all that technical stuff."
"Yeah. Since you're here General, do we need to have the reports done anytime soon?" Ford asked.
"Why?"
"We're all tired for one thing and it's been a rather fun packed few days." he said hearing Daniel groan.
"You call two days of no coffee fun?" Daniel asked rhetorically.
"Coffee I can live without for awhile. The no chocolate cravings drove me nuts."
"Don't make it later than two days. Mind if I sit in on the debriefing?"
"What debriefing? I was there so I know what happened. We went, went through some hell, raised some hell, came home."
"Hmm. Jack figured as much. Guess I owe him fifty bucks."
"Ah hell!" Ford almost shouted. "I forgot about that. I owe him a thousand dollars."
"What fo….no, I'll find out later. I need a ice pack and a shower." Daniel said leaving. "And lots of coffee."
"A hot bath for me when I get home. Right now, I need something good to eat." she said following him out.
"Personally, I think we have the best job in the world." Mitchell said happily.
"We are indeed suitably employed." Teal'c stated.
"Hey, I know this
is a strange question General." Mitchell said getting a look
from both Generals. "Ford I mean, can I keep this?"
"Strange,
no. But sure. Just let the…weapons guy, his name escapes me at
the moment, know to have it ready for you anytime you want it."
Ford said taking the clip off his Tommy gun. "General Landry,
thank you for your help here. Feel free to finish up if you like or
go home. Personally, I am going home. I'd shake your hand, but…."
"Hmm. Maybe I should come here more often. This place seems rather lively." Landry said as Mitchell and Ford walked out. "Especially if the food is as good as everyone says."
"Hey Walter, I need to send a encrypted priority message to Colonel Emerson. His eyes only." Ford said as he entered the control room.
Walter nodded and got the system ready for him to call.
