Daniel leant sleepily against the side of the elevator watching the buttons light up as the floors passed, idly counting the levels. Half-heartedly he wondered how many minutes of his life he had spent in this tiny space – if he added them all up it amounted to a pretty substantial amount of time. As level 27 appeared he straightened up stifling a yawn; he had actually slept pretty well last night, but he still felt tired. The doors pinged open, Daniel stepped out in to the narrow corridor and walked the short distance to the briefing room. The door was open and General Hammond beckoned him in. Daniel drew up a chair and looked around the table with a faint frown as he tried to work out why General Hammond had phoned him at 6:15 in the morning to call him to this meeting.
The General sat at the head of the table, Major Davis to his left with a sheaf of papers in front of him. Arranged around from him sat Doctors McKay and Zalenka and the heads of various SG teams including Lt Colonel Sergei Evanov of the Russian SG-4 and Major Boyd who headed up the military focused SG-10.
"Thank you for joining me gentlemen" General Hammond said, looking up with a formal nod of acknowledgement. His expression was serious "I'm sorry to inform you it appears at least one of the alien bugs threatening Thor's ship may have made it to earth intact."
"Oh great! So we're all going to die?" McKay blurted out, flinging himself petulantly back in his chair. Hammond gave him a stern look and McKay withered in his gaze. "Sorry" he muttered reluctantly and Hammond continued, "The joint defence chiefs have been working all night on a military strategy to try and contain the alien threat, but you gentlemen have expertise that may be of use." He nodded to Major Davis "The Major will brief you on the developments."
Davis, like Hammond, looked grave. "Late yesterday we intercepted a mayday call from a Russian sub" he explained. "Since then we have received confirmation from the Kremlin, informing us that one of their subs is missing. The location in which it disappeared is in the vicinity of the Pacific ocean close to where Thor's ship went down." He paused and looked around the assembled group. "Before the transmission cut out the crew said that they were under attack from a mechanical spider."
"A mechanical what?" echoed Major Boyd.
"'Spider' was the word used in the transmission, but we don't know exactly it was" Major Davis said, turning to him. "Currently, that is all the intel we have." He looked around the table again. "As we speak the US Navy is preparing deep sea submersible to try to try to find the sub. All civilian crafts have been instructed to leave the area and ships armed with nuclear torpedoes are heading to the scene."
"Ah..is that actually likely to work?" Daniel asked, looking worried. "I mean, if the Asgard couldn't destroy these…these um spider things, then I seriously doubt our nuclear weapons will do much good."
"We are aware of that Dr Jackson" said General Hammond calmly, "but right now, it is our best option. We are hoping that you gentlemen might be able to contribute some ideas."
Dr McKay folded his arms decisively "And just how are we supposed to do that?" he asked. "We have absolutely no idea what the hell they are!" He slumped in his chair looking dejected.
"We are hoping," General Hammond reiterated, "That your combined off-world experience and technical expertise, might enable you to suggest some possibilities."
"Mechanical spiders…" Daniel repeated slowly and thoughtfully. Somehow that rang a bell. He squinted as he tried to recapture the memory, but it escaped him.
General Hammond spotted the expression and turned to him hopefully. "Dr Jackson, have you any ideas?" Everybody looked at Daniel.
"Uh – no." he admitted reluctantly with a shake of his head. "But…" He tailed off and rubbed his forehead in frustration as the thought continued to elude his fumbling grasp.
There was a pause. "Sounds more like a machine than an alien life form." Major Boyd observed. "Some type of automatic weapon?"
"But who could have created it?" asked Dr Zalenka with a puzzled frown. "Whoever it was must have very advanced technological capabilities."
"Good question" Major Boyd replied "But not immediately relevant. The important thing is.."
"Of course it is relevant" Zalenka countered cutting in indignantly. "Knowing who created might tell us what type of technology they use."
"Dr Zalenka's right" Daniel agreed "There aren't many races we've encountered that would have that type of knowledge."
"Do you have anyone in mind?" General Hammond asked, looking piercingly at Daniel.
Daniel shook his head. "Well obviously the Asgard didn't attack their own world. The Nox would presumably have the capabilities, but they are a peaceful race."
"As far as we know." Major Davis put in.
"Are we missing the obvious?" Hammond offered. "What about the Gould? Could the mechanical spiders be based on nanite technology?" He looked at the scientists.
McKay shrugged "Nanites work by interacting with biological material but they could certainly be programmed to be a formidable weapon."
"But the Asgard have no problems defeating the Gould" Major Davis pointed out.
"What about the Tollans?" Suggested Evanov suddenly. "Their technological capabilities seemed far in advance of the Gould."
"But why attack the Asgard?" asked Daniel in confusion. "The Tollans admired technological advancement. Their hardly likely to have picked a fight with Thor."
McKay shook his head in disagreement. "They might if they were jealous of their technology."
Daniel grimaced. "I don't think so. The Tollans were arrogant and proud, but not vindictive."
"What about robot guy?" Major Boyd put in. He gestured to Daniel. "You know; the one who made robotic versions of you all. I'm guessing that if he could create sentient copies that believe they're human he ought to manage a few spider things." Several people around the table nodded in agreement.
"You mean Harlan?" said Daniel. "Maybe…" The Altarian scientists were brilliant, but Harlan was all that was left. What would he gain from it? He lapsed into thoughtful silence. Suddenly he straightened up with an urgent expression on his face. "Linea".
"Who?" asked McKay, not following.
"Stereotypical evil genius with a penchant for destroying things just because she can." Daniel replied hurriedly with a distracted wave of his hands. "Brilliant scientist. Created a plague. Wiped out worlds. We let her out of prison." He looked round confidently. "It fits her MO."
"Ok, she just became our prime suspect." Said General Hammond decisively. "Dr Jackson, what do we know about her?"
I know I've changed the canonical order a bit but I wanted more drama at the SGC while the gate was off-line.