Chapter Summary: A rescue mission gets hijacked.
Chapter Word Count: 5,267

Miranda wasn't an expert with such things, but the hiding place Andrea's people had made was almost undetectable unless you noticed its wrongness. She was surprised it wasn't surrounded by the usual meddling Ascended, either the real Ancients or more recent ones she'd been warned about. The Asgard, if they bothered, could also probably find it if they knew what not to look for.

Stepping through the walls of their encampment required noticeable, though not too difficult, effort. And, it unexpectedly set off a loud alarm. Looking around the small space, it didn't look like anything special. Just living quarters. She'd apparently come in the back instead of the main entrance.

"Who are you!" a voice asked, one of the being she'd detected earlier now entering the room, followed by three others. From the multiple energy types she sensed coming from their uniforms, she suspected they were armed, though not with anything she was familiar with. The SGC mainly used traditional US military weapons with a different energy signature, though she wasn't an expert on their usage. And they could detect her presence in her current state, which was more than anyone else unascended in this place seemed able to do.

"Good evening, Ladies," she said, materializing in front of them. "I hope I am not interrupting anything." She nodded at the twins, Andrea's supposed bodyguards, and the two others, short brunettes.

"No, Lady Miranda," one of the short brunettes said, recognizing her. "We were just discussing our plans for rescuing Lady Andrea. She seems to have had an accident during her arrival here through the portal."

Miranda ignored the whispers by the others who weren't as sure of her identity given her sudden appearance.

"Andrea mentioned a Harriet and Ginny," she said, "but said nothing of you two."

"Harry, ma'am," one of the blonde twins said, correcting her.

"Harriet," Miranda said.

"Yes, ma'am," Harriet said, pouting, to laughter from the others.

"I'm Joy, and that's Janice," the first brunette to speak said. "You've found Lady Andrea? Is she okay? Lady Shadow isn't going to be too happy that we've lost her."

"She appeared suddenly in a facility I've been observing," Miranda said. "Her 'hard suit'? She claimed it was experimental."

"Yes, ma'am," Harriet said. "We've been testing them. They're meant for stealth combat operations mostly. Based on ones like the Shadows wear."

"A little too experimental, I suspect," Miranda said. "She's locked into a form of stasis and is unable to communicate outside of her dreams."

"You're a dream traveler, ma'am?" Janice asked. "The suits should prevent any mental contact."

"Apparently so," Miranda said. "I was unable to contact her until she fell asleep. She said her 'nanites' have her immobilized."

"They must have detected some kind of danger they weren't prepared for," Harry said. "There wouldn't happen to be any Roswell Greys or those Goa'uld things running around where she is?"

"Not currently," Miranda said. "But they have had contact with them and there may be traces."

"Okay, we can fix that, if you can get us in to see her," Ginny said, speaking for the first time. "Her suit just needs a slight recalibration."

"Will not your suits have the same problem, if they are the same?" Miranda asked.

"We'll fix them before we go," Harriet said. "Joy and Janice will stay here just in case there are other issues."

"Harry!" Janice said, pouting, "We need to go with you. How can we accurately asses the threat to our reality if we can't examine their portal device?"

"Andrea did not explain the portal that you came through in any detail," Miranda said. "Is it a danger to our world?" Sometimes, Miranda went with her gut feelings and this was a huge flashing one.

"Only if one of those Goa'uld parasite things or other aliens come through," Janice said. "We have enough alien issues of our own without adding new ones. The Clan has been preparing for war for a long time."

"Hush!" Joy said. "No need to complicate things. We have Lady Miranda, we just need to get the other passengers, and Lady Andrea and we can go home. If Lady Shadow decides it's too dangerous to leave the portal open she'll find a way to close it."

"I have been unable to find any other survivors from my journey here," Miranda said, grimacing. They'd been employees and a friend, but loyal ones. She would rather not leave them behind if they still lived, but in the years she'd been here she'd found no traces of them.

"Oh..." said Joy, frowning. "We'll keep looking as long as we can."

"Who is this Lady Shadow?" Miranda asked, nodding in thanks.

"Their boss," Harriet said, pointing at the brunettes. "And part of the Clan's ruling Council of Nine. We work for Lady Q," she added, waving at her sister. "We go in from the front and smack down our enemies, they sneak around behind them and pick their pockets."

"Who does my Andrea work for?" Miranda asked, watching them prepare themselves.

"She works for the Council," Joy said. "Doing some kind of cultural preservation thing. Rescuing you is a special project."

"She used to be a journalist," Miranda said, frowning.

"The Boss might have bought her newspaper," Janice said. "At least that's the rumor. She got some kind of award for the book she wrote after you disappeared."

"Something called a Pulitzer," Harriet said. "Lady Q had us read it before the mission. Very sad."

"Lady Q's a big softy," Ginny said. "Unless you insult the Memory, or meet in battle."

"Yeah, nobody insults the Memory and gets away with it. Lady Air, Lady Shadow, and Lady Q are very protective of her," Joy said. "Ready to go? We'll have everything packed up when you get back. Lady Shadow doesn't want us leaving anything behind."

"You should probably use the door this time, Lady Miranda," Ginny said in a whisper. "The Shadows get a bit testy if you set off their alarms accidentally."

"Or even not accidentally," Harriet said in another whisper, giggling. "I think they sleep with their spy toys."

"Of course," Miranda said, keeping her amusement to herself. "Lead the way."

"It will be faster for me to take both of you," Miranda said. "Andrea is inside of a hidden base, deep underground."

"Which our sensors, at the least the ones the Shadows brought, can't really penetrate," Harriet said. "They'll be glad to know it isn't their equipment."

"Well, not just their equipment," Ginny said. "Our sensors need upgrading too."

"Lady Miranda, can you use one of our comm units?" Harriet asked. "It's not one of the internal models like we have but it'll let you communicate with us and Lady Andrea without having to do all that mind stuff. The nanites freak out if they detect anything like that." She held out a small device that looked like it would fit in one ear.

"We shall see," Miranda said, taking it from her. She examined it closely before nodding and adding its functionality to her energy matrix. "You should be able to hear me now," she said over it.

"Yes!" Harriet said excitedly, answering over the same channel. "That's our common channel. We also have other channels for other purposes in the more complex models. Team channels and private channels. And data channels if you're wearing one of our suits."

"Shall we?" Miranda said. Reaching out, physically, and mentally, she took hold of the two women and flashed across the miles. She stopped briefly outside the gate to the mountain. "This is the main entrance," she told them, maintaining her energy state. "We shall skip their welcoming committee and go directly to Andrea. Please do not attack anyone, they tend to be excitable."

"The Shadows have a lock on us now," Ginny said. "If we need a rescue they know where we are."

"We're very diplomatic, Lady Miranda," Harriet said. "We've had special training. The Shadows think we stomp into things like Arnold Schwarzenegger in a B movie, but we can be polite."

"We've been going through officer training," Ginny said. "When we get back, Lady Q has two new cohorts waiting for us, all trained in first contact procedures."

"You have a broad pop culture knowledge," Miranda said, looking at them in surprise. "How did you come by that?"

"You mean, why do to alien Mayan chicks know anything about Earth pop culture?" Ginny said, giggling. "It's a long story. The Memory will be glad to tell you."

"You won't be able to stop her," Harry said. "You're related to Lady Andrea, and Lady Sue knows you. I bet they ask you to join the Council when we get back."

"I wouldn't take that bet," Ginny said. "I can detect Lady Andrea from here but her suit is definitely blocking all comm traffic. We'll have to patch it there. And in its current state it won't let you move it using your energy matrix."

"No?" Miranda said.

"No. We had to adjust our suits to go with you. We don't have that kind of capability but our suits can block energy based forms from interfering with us," Harriet said. "Once we fix her suit she can allow you to do that."

"We should get moving," Ginny said. "The natives are getting restless. They can't hurt us with those high energy guns but it'll still scratch the paint, and I don't want to explain to the Chief that we were careless with her new suits."

"Nope, definitely don't want the Chief mad at us," Harriet said.

Miranda reached for them once more and transported them down into the lower levels of the mountain, reintegrating into solid matter just outside the small infirmary room they'd placed Andrea in.

"I'll stay out here," Harriet said, "and make nice with the people in uniforms. You go fix Lady Andrea's suit. Lady Miranda, you should probably go with her so they don't start shooting."

Miranda sighed, but nodded. Andrea's bodyguards were certainly well trained and efficient.

"You can't go in there," a nurse protested, standing in front of Ginny, even as Miranda slipped by.

"Lady P! You're back. Already," Janet said. "And who's this?" she asked as Ginny gently moved the nurse over to the side so she could pass. Reaching Andy's bed, she popped open her helmet and spoke to Janet.

"Hello, I'm Ginny Potter, of the Dragon Clan of the Pan-Galactic Confederation," Ginny said, talking quickly. "Though, you probably don't have a Galactic Confederation here do you. But anyway, I'm here to fix Lady Andrea's hard suit. And then we can get out of your hair."

"Lady P?" Janet said, staring wide eyed at the armored woman in front of her.

"Andrea's suit appears to have malfunctioned when she arrived in your gate room. Ginny will fix the problem," Miranda said.

"Malfunction?" Carter asked, slipping into the room. "What kind of malfunction?"

"I won't know until I can look at it," Ginny said. "But it appears to be locked in stasis. Which can be a huge annoying crap fest. Had it happen to me once jumping on Pluto. Took Harry days to find me. It's really cold on Pluto."

"Jumping on Pluto?" Carter asked, wide eyed.

"Oh yeah," Ginny said. "It's awesome. Take a scooter up to the gravity limit and jump. The Boss gets grumpy if she can't do it at least once a week if we aren't on patrol."

"The Boss?" Carter asked.

"You're babbling," Harry said over their private channel. "Fix up Lady Andrea so we can get going. Someone's noticed we're here. The Shadows say there's lots of incoming traffic. And not the friendly kind."

"Lady Q," Ginny said. "And I need to take care of Lady Andrea. It takes a few minutes for a suit like that to reboot when it's being worn and we've got incoming traffic about an hour out. Don't really want to be here when they arrive."

"Traffic?" Carter asked.

Ginny shrugged. "That's what I was told. I'm assuming it's someone or something that wouldn't appreciate our presence. Or would appreciate it a little too much. They weren't clear."

"As soon as you do your reset, we'll look into it," Carter said. "I'm sure Major Frasier won't want her patient moved unless absolutely necessary."

"Carter! Tell your buddies to speed it up!" O'Neill yelled from outside the room. "Some of Kinsey's goons just knocked on our front door."

Ignoring the sudden tension in the room, Ginny leaned over and touched two panels on Andy's hard suit. There was a low hum and the suit started glowing with a faint green light. Removing her hands, she stepped back. "Okay, Lady P, her suit should be fully functioning when that green glow goes away."

"How long," Carter asked. "Your incoming just passed the first gate. You can't be here when they get down here."

"So, you don't want any unpleasantness?" Ginny said. "We can disappear. But if they start shooting and ordering us around, we'll be ignoring them."

"Not going to shoot first?" a fuzzy voice said.

"Andy! You're awake," Ginny said.

"Stupid nanites," Andy said. "Can talk. Still can't move. Hey Miranda."

"Andrea," Miranda said. "We are close to overstaying our welcome."

"Just got an info dump," Andy said, grimacing. "Some politician with an over developed sense of the gimmes?"

"Former chairman of our funding committee," Carter said. "Won't take no for an answer."

"We're so out of here," Andy said. "As soon as my suit finishes."

"The nice doctor wants to make sure you're okay before we drag you away," Ginny said.

"I'm fine," Andy said, waving at the person Ginny indicated. "Not even a sore muscle anywhere. Just that slightly fuzzy feeling I get from the pods."

"Pods?" Janet said. "Not a large person sized thing that looks like an Egyptian sarcophagus?"

"No," Ginny said. "Learning pods. Immersive virtual reality. If you have that movie, The Matrix, it's sort of like that. Speeds up learning."

"Fascinating," Carter said.

"Fascinating can wait," Janet said, noticing a certain familiar gleam in Carter's eyes. "If they ever come back you can grill them about it."

"Sorry," Ginny said. "Only a user, not a tech. Rebooting suits is the most I can do. Unless you need things blown up."

"No, we have plenty of people who can blow things up," Janet said. "Isn't that right Colonel."

Before he could respond, there was a humming noise that quickly got louder, and the three hard suited women, Carter, and O'Neill disappeared in a flash of light.

"Someone must have been taunting Murphy," Janet said with a groan. Stepping over to the nearest phone she called General Hammond. "General, we have a small, non-Kinsey related problem. Someone appears to have removed several people from my infirmary without asking." Hanging up, she stomped back over to where Miranda was still standing. "You should go before Kinsey's Goon Squad gets here."

"Where is Andrea," Miranda asked. "Not even five words and someone has taken her away again."

"That was an Asgard transport beam. I don't know how fast you can go but hopefully you can catch them," Janet said. "I'll let the General know you are gone."

Miranda nodded. "I may not return," she said.

"Understood," Janet said, "Now go get your wife."

A minute after she disappeared, there was a commotion in the hall as Kinsey's men ran into SG-2, who had been guarding the infirmary. "Someone needs to do something about that man," Janet grumbled to herself, before going out into the hall.

Miranda stepped from the mountain into the Shadow hideout. "We have run into a slight issue." she told the surprised women. "The Asgard have borrowed my Andrea and several others. We shall return here once I retrieve them."

"Asgard? Roswell greys?" Joy said. "Can we come this time?" She said this to empty air, Miranda disappearing before she could finish her request.

"I guess not," Joy said, pouting. "Let's send another message back to Lady Shadow, telling her we'll be here a little longer."

"We might get some company," Janice said. "Lady Q doesn't like her troopers being kidnapped."

"They weren't kidnapped," Joy said. "They were borrowed."

"Semantics," Janice said. "What's for dinner?" she asked, leaning over Joy's shoulder.

Miranda paused at the edge of the atmosphere. She'd rarely left the planet since ascending, only doing so just to see if she could. But now she had a reason. Someone had stolen her Andrea and she wanted her back. So she reached deep within herself and found the connection to Andrea that she'd made while walking in her dreams. There you are, she thought and pulled herself to it.

Living in a universe with those busybody Ancient Ascended, she wasn't surprised that the Asgard were able to detect her presence even if she were invisible, alarms going off as she emerged in a large room occupied by the missing people, and an alien. She'd never seen one of the Asgard up close before and she wasn't impressed. They were a living cliche and she didn't do cliches.

Miranda floated over to Andrea, who was being supported by her bodyguards, and made her presence known, interrupting the pointless discussion between the SGC people and the alien.

"Andrea, Ladies, Colonel O'Neill," she said, causing them to jump in surprise. "What is the meaning of this interference," she asked the alien.

The alien blinked at her, radiating surprise.

"Our old pal Loki here, needs a little help," O'Neill said sarcastically. "He expects us to pull his skinny butt out of trouble."

"You shall return Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill, and we shall be leaving," she said.

"It isn't that simple," Carter said. "Besides, we're already too far from Earth."

"I'm sure Loki," she raised an eyebrow at saying the creature's name, "can turn this contraption around."

"We need to help him, Miranda," Andy said.

"Why?" Miranda asked, with all the disdain she could put into a single word, as she stared at the silent Asgardian.

"One of his experiments has gotten out of control, and he needs us to stop it," Andy said.

"Why is this our problem?" Miranda said. "The Asgard don't need us to clean up their messes."

"It's inside a temporal anomaly," Carter said. "Apparently, we're the only ones who can enter it."

"Our hard suits are not quite in phase with this universe," Harry said, "So we can slip into the anomaly, fix the problem, and leave."

"I see five people and only three of these hard suits," Miranda said.

"Blah, blah, previous exposure to time loops, blah," O'Neill said. "End of the multiverse if we don't fix it, yada, yada. Typical day at the office." He winked at Ginny who was giggling.

Shaking her head, Miranda focused on Andrea. "Andrea?"

"Be kind of hard to go home if we let the universe get destroyed," Andy said. "But I think we're going to need some help."

"Got a platoon in your back pocket?" O'Neill said.

"No, but we have a couple intel specialists available," she said. "Almost as good."

"No, please?" Ginny said. "We don't need them."

"Yeah, they're annoying," Harry added.

"Lady Shadow wouldn't have sent them if they weren't good," Andy said. "So we'll need to go back to Earth for a pickup," she told Loki. "Unless you can get them?" she asked Miranda.

"Not over this kind of distance," Miranda said. "I'm not a taxi."

"Co-ordinates of these others?" Loki said.

"We don't use the same measuring system," Harry said reluctantly. "Got a map?" A large globe of the Earth appeared in the room. "They're right around here," she said, pointing at a spot on the globe.

"You should send one of us down to explain things," Ginny said. "They'll probably want to bring some of their toys with them."

"Toys?" Carter said, excitedly. "Tech toys?"

"Yes," Harry said. "They've got some really fancy things."

"Wow," Joy said, looking around. "Not what I expected for an alien space ship. Kind of plain."

"Boring," Janice added. "If our ships were like this we'd be having riots."

"Small riots," Joy said, seeing the alarmed look on Carter's face. "Or maybe lots of parties."

"They're kidding," Ginny said. "We're more about the orgies than riots."

"And video games," Janice said. "But enough about us, what exactly do we need to do?"

"We need to sneak into a time anomaly, on a heavily guarded planet, and turn it off," Andy said. "There might be aliens."

"Goa'uld? Or something else?" Janice asked.

"Loki, why did you build this lab right in the middle of a Goa'uld System Lord's planet?" O'Neill said. "You couldn't find some nice empty moon somewhere?"

"The planet was empty," Loki said in his monotone voice. "There was no reason for it to be otherwise."

"Ah," O'Neill said. "And you couldn't move your experiment when they showed up? They aren't the best of neighbors. Property values tend to go down when they show up."

"Why is immaterial," Miranda said. "More information is needed."

"Good thing you have us," Joy said. "More information is our specialty."

"A squad of Lady Q's finest would also be nice," Harry said. "And some planning. Lady Miranda, I would suggest that the guy with the grey hair be in charge of the planning. According to what the Shadows could dig up, his file is so blacked out they ran out of ink."

"We need deep intel before we can plan anything," O'Neill said. "There aren't enough of us to afford any John Wayne maneuvers."

"Who?" Janice said. "Or what's a John Wayne?"

"Kids," O'Neill grumbled under his breath. "It doesn't matter. It's just an expression."

"Yes, do as he says, not as he does," Carter said, smirking.

"What's the exact goal?" O'Neill said, looking at Loki. "Go in, and destroy your lab? And turn off some doohickey before it explodes? Anything you want us to bring back? A cup of soup, some crystals?"

"You do not need to bring anything back, O'Neill," Loki said. "After you enable the lab's self destruction apparatus, the shields will go down for several of your seconds just before the destruction and I will retrieve all desirable data at that moment."

"And you will retrieve us at the same time, I'm assuming," O'Neill said. "I have no fondness for a suicide mission."

"Yes," Loki said.

"I shall ensure that he does," Miranda said firmly.

"Good, good," O'Neill said. "So we have our exit taken care of, though we'll need to work out the timing. What's our deadline?"

"Deadline?" Loki gave him a faintly puzzled look.

"How much time do we have to get ready for this? When will it be too late," O'Neill said.

"Forty-eight of your hours," Loki said.

"Okay gang, that's not a lot of time to get ready," O'Neill said. "What do we have for equipment and what do we need ol' Loki here to get for us."

"And not a lot of time to get intel," Joy said. "How soon do we get there and how fast can you insert us into the chaos."

"We shall arrive within transport distance of the lab in twenty hours.," Loki said.

"Cutting it a bit close," Andy said.

"Plenty of time," O'Neill said, "Right Carter?"

"Yes, sir," Carter said, shaking her head. "What kind of weapons do you have in those suits?" she asked.

"Depends on the suit," Harry said. "We've got pulse cannons and miniature rockets. And a few other close quarter weapons. And we're very mobile. The Shadows have mostly stealth based weapons."

"Monofilament whips, knives, and energy weapons," Janice said. "Mainly defensive."

"We don't have anything, thanks Loki," O'Neill said. There was a flash of light and a pile of weapons appeared in the center of the room. "I take it back. Some nice P90's, a few knives, and some C4. Just what the doctor ordered."

"Miranda, do you plan to come with us?" Andy said, looking at her wife.

"Not visibly," she said. She didn't plan to fight but she certainly wasn't letting Andrea go without her. And in an emergency she could pull her out.

"So, we're armed, we're dangerous, now we just need a plan to tie it all up in a little bow," O'Neill said.

"What's the plan?" Andy asked.

"Simple plans are the best," Carter said. "Joy and Janice go in and gather intel first. Then we go in and enable the self destruct and get out of there."

"Do we all have experience in this kind of situation?" Andy said. "Because I've only done sims with the suit I'm wearing now."

"What exactly is your job?" O'Neill asked, frowning.

"I used to be a journalist," Andy said. "Did you ever see that movie 'Monument Men'?"

"World War II and a team of Army soldiers run around Europe grabbing as much looted Nazi art as they can find before it disappears?" Carter said.

"More or less," Andy said. "That's what I've been doing. But we just record everything. Requires stealth."

"She's the 'Art Shadow'," Joy said, giggling.

"She's qualified in all aspects of hard suit combat," Ginny said. "Just needs a little experience and Lady Q'll snap her right up. She's got excellent suit reflexes."

"When we get out of here I'd like to try one of these suits," O'Neill said.

"Even if we had spare suits with us, we don't have fittings for the testosterone impaired," Harry said. "Carter might be able to wear one, if she fits the DNA profile."

"DNA profile?" Carter said, curious.

"You need Clan DNA for the suits to work at their full potential," Harry said.

"Or at all," Ginny added.

"Like needing Ancient DNA to operate their equipment or naquadah in your blood to operate most Goa'uld tech," Carter said.

"Oh, is that what that meant," Joy muttered to herself. "Yes," she said loudly. "And the new hard suits like the ones Lady Andrea, Harriet, and Ginny are wearing also require nanites that only work with Clan DNA."

"Looks like you're out of luck then Carter," O'Neill said. "No new toys for you."

Carter looked up from where she was sorting through the equipment Loki had dumped in a pile. "The NID would probably confiscate it," she said.

"They do have sticky fingers," he said, agreeing with her. "Hey Loki, got a place we can test these? Firing range? Large empty hold?"

"Yes, O'Neill," Loki said.

"Okay, that is impressive," O'Neill said, after the five hard suit wearing women had displayed what their suits were capable of doing. "How much of that can be used if it isn't attached to your suit?"

"Nothing," Ginny said. "It's all powered by the suit."

"Which, as we mentioned earlier, only works for select members of our studio audience," Harry said, while over the comm Miranda could hear a rapid discussion between Andrea and the Shadow troopers about the things they weren't telling the two Air Force officers.

"I don't think they need to know about the suit self-destruct," Andy said.

"But they blow up with a huge bang," Joy said. "We might need that."

"You wouldn't have to be the one to tell Lady Q's Armorer that you destroyed a prototype hard suit," Andy said quietly.

"They can just make more," Joy said. "It's ninety percent nanite anyway. Those things are indestructible. That's what makes them near quantum explosion proof."

"Quantum explosion proof?" Miranda said, interrupting them. "Our Earth has moved beyond nuclear weapons?"

"Well, the Clan has some interesting devices," Andy said. "But they haven't given any weapons tech to our world governments. And Lady Shadow probably won't allow that."

"Ladies, something you want to share with the rest of the class," O'Neill asked.

"No," Andy said.

"Nope," Joy and Janice echoed. "Nothing to share."

"Okay..." O'Neill said. Carter shook her head.

"O'Neill, we are approaching the planet," Loki's voice said, echoing in the large space.

"Time to get ready, kids," O'Neill said. "Let's not leave anyone or anything behind."

"What's the verdict," Andy asked Joy and Janice once they'd been retrieved from the planet.

"Crowded," Joy said. "The lab is right in the middle of a huge pyramid palace thing. We're going to need a big distraction."

"The biggest," Janice added.

"We've got plenty of distraction," O'Neill said, holding up a block of C4. "You've got the speed to place this in a few strategic places without being seen, and then we blow it up."

"Our suits should be impervious to any small scale explosions," Harry said. "But I'd rather not have them blow up while we're holding them."

"Of course not," O'Neill said. "Carter has just the thing for that."

"Do we have any spare external comm units?" Andy asked. "Having us all on the same channel would be a good idea. Preferably the encrypted ones."

"We have a couple for the non-suits," Joy said. "We didn't know who we'd find. Lady Miranda has hers, as you might have noticed."

"And who told her about the private channels," Andy asked, winking at Miranda.

"You married a genius," Harry said. "She figured it all out herself."

"There are a number of benefits to ascending," Miranda said. "Especially if you aren't from this universe."

"Like what?" Carter said.

"I'm sure you can discuss that all later," O'Neill said. "Comm units?"

"Right," Joy said, handing an earpiece and small patch to Carter and O'Neil. "The patch is the control unit. Stick it somewhere on your skin - it won't fall off unless you remove it. The earpiece also is self sticking. Three channels. The common channel for everyone. We'll all hear anything you say on it. A channel for private conversations. And a team channel. In your case that would be the two of you."

"So, no one can eavesdrop on us?" Carter said.

"Only one person can access all live channels," Janice said. "Lady Shadow, but she's not here and the range for these is only a couple clicks without our sat boosters. And it doesn't work through that portal."

"Our Clan historian, Lady Memory, also has access to all recorded comm channel traffic for historical purposes," Joy said. "But the external comms don't have much capacity."

"Okay," O'Neill said. "So we don't discuss anything sensitive. And how do we use them?"

"It's all in your head," Andy said.

"She's not kidding," Ginny said. "You control it with your mind. No lip movement required."

"I heard that," Carter said excitedly. "So the comm unit translates your thoughts into words and transmits them on the designated channel?"

"None of you have earpieces," Jack said.

"We have implants," Joy said. "It gets us more than the audio you get but they only work if you're Clan. And they're designed to work with our suits and other equipment."

"I think I'll skip that version then," Jack said.

"So your comms aren't just audio," Carter said. "What don't you have?"

"No live video," Harry said. "Our suits have video that the implants can control but not for communicating. That takes too much power, more than we can squeeze into the implants."

"And why earpieces if they read our thoughts?" Carter asked.

"Tradition?" Janice said. "They've always looked like that."

"It's the nano tech," Joy said. "Only Clan can use it, so those are the non-nanotech versions of our comms. Still miniaturized, but still needs space. And where else would you put it?"

"Ready?" O'Neill asked, putting the earpiece in. After receiving confirmation from the others he waved at Loki.