Sticks and Stones - Chapter 50 - by Emma Nisbet (grnfield)
Due to there being no visible ring platform in the clearing Jack allowed Teal'c to guide everyone to stand in the correct position and the nine men gathered close together in a back to back formation. Once Teal'c gave the signal that they were all positioned correctly Jack depressed the crystal on the armband still hidden beneath his left sleeve.
There was a rush of light and air, followed by a metallic thumping sound as the rings fell around the men.
Almost instantaneously the rings reappeared inside the Ha'tak vessel and deposited eight humans and one Jaffa safely on the metal floor.
Immediately the comrades dispersed from their tight huddle and dived behind the many boxes and crates stacked up around the room, each one almost expecting either to be instantly struck down by staff weapons fire or to feel the electrical charge of a Zat hit them.
After a few brief moments of silence the various members of the SGC realised there was no obviously hostile force in the room with them. No alarms sounded and no footfalls were heard in the nearby corridors. One by one, nine heads emerged from behind hiding places and the members of the rescue teams looked at one another in bemusement.
"What, no welcoming committee?" Griff asked quietly. "Ain't that a bit strange?"
"Better no welcoming committee than a heavily armed and dangerous one," Jack replied. "Don't knock it; we'll take it as a good thing for the moment. T, what do you make of this?"
"I am as puzzled as you, O'Neill," the large Jaffa replied, looking as unpuzzled as ever. "As you say perhaps we should take this as a good sign for the time being, however extreme vigilance would be prudent when traversing further into the depths of the ship."
"You think it's a trap. Right?" Jack asked cautiously.
"I believe that to be a distinct possibility, O'Neill," his large friend answered. "I would be most pleased to find my fears to be unnecessary. Until that time, however, I shall be utilising extreme caution and I implore everyone here to do the same."
"Point made, Teal'c," Jack nodded. "Got that everyone? Eyes peeled."
"Got it." "Sure thing." "Right oh." A variety of muted replies filtered back to Jack.
~#~
Jack took a careful look down the corridor leading away from the room where they were hiding before looking at his watch and turning back to once again address the men.
"Get into your teams, people. We can't stay here. We've got barely eighty minutes before our 1330 deadline. Who knows what the hell happens after that. I don't intend to be here to find out. In, job done, out. All agreed?"
"Agreed." Teal'c answered for everyone in the room.
After a fair amount of shuffling the teams were organised and their call signs agreed upon. Jack allocated SR-1 to Griff's team, the Major had a larger team than Jack and by far the worst of the two tasks to complete. Jack's team was to be SR-2. Radio contact would be kept to an absolute minimum but all team-members wore headsets for the inevitable time when communication became absolutely necessary.
Jack's team set off first, having furthest to travel to their destination. Teal'c had briefed Jack on the most efficient way of reaching the Jaffa quarters and had also given a detailed description of places to avoid and places to hide along the way.
SR-1 were ordered to give SR-2 an eight minute lead time before setting off towards their own target.
~#~
Jack's team spotted the first non-SGC person not long after Griff's team had set out from the ring-room.
As they cautiously rounded the fifteenth corner in the maze of corridors through which they were walking they came face to face with a huge Jaffa warrior wearing the mark of the Goa'uld System Lord Zipacna. Both the team and the warrior stopped dead where they stood, each side sizing the other up and waiting for the other to make the first move.
Just as Jack was beginning to wonder how to break the stalemate without creating a potentially disastrous amount of noise, the Jaffa slipped backwards through an open doorway and silently closed the door behind himself.
Jack and the others watched him go with matching looks of stupefaction on their faces. Once the door was firmly closed they looked at one another in amazement.
"Oookay, that was weird," Jack muttered just loud enough for the others to hear.
Reynolds let out a barely audible chuckle, "You can say that again, Colonel."
"Just what the hell was that?" Bell put in.
"No idea," replied Jack. "But one thing's for certain - they know we're here, they're not fighting and, well, I kinda got the idea he wasn't all that surprised to see us either."
"I got that too," Reynolds agreed. "What's with the Jaffa just letting us past without a single word of argument though? I know Teal'c's reticent about speaking but in confrontational circumstances you often can't stop him. That…what we've just seen…well that just wasn't normal Jaffa behaviour. It was just…odd."
"Whoa, big words there Reynolds, my friend." Jack said, jokingly. "But I'd have to agree with you - odd that most certainly was. If they're all on the same wavelength as ol' Zippy's guy though we're in for one hell of an easier time than we might have been otherwise. Anyway boys and…er…boys, shall we continue on to rescue Dorothy while Toto deals with the Wizard?"
This drew smiles from the other three men. This was Jack, back at his sarcastic best, and the three men realised how much they had missed the sardonic wit within the walls of the SGC since Jack had left for the Alpha site. Despite Jack still being second-on-command of the SGC, Hammond had refrained from calling the Colonel back to Earth more often than was absolutely necessary. Most of the time he'd managed to catch up with Jack when he'd come back for his relatively-regular visits with Sam. Hammond had realised that Jack needed to rediscover the stability in his life that he'd had for the last seven years and had left the Colonel alone as much as possible so he could find a certain level of permanence in his everyday life.
SG-1 had been the Colonel's earthing-rod since Charlie had died. That earth had been brutally ripped from Jack's person when Daniel had died and for a time the Colonel had been lost, afloat on a sea of despair due to the fact that he no longer had a clear purpose in his life.
Since Jack had been at the Alpha site he'd made himself a new life, a new team…a new family if you will. That tied with the fact that Sam had now become his link to life-on-Earth had enabled the Colonel to come back into being in his greatly-altered role.