Chapter 3, part 1.

Alice and the three Marines stayed at their posts for the entire time that they waited for the Apollo. The mercenaries made no more attempts at attacking them, but about an hour into the wait, Alice saw the Al'kesh that had been parked near the Stargate rise above the tree line and fly away. She reported it to Reynolds and the team leaders—meaning him, Walsh, Andrews and herself—had a discussion on whether it made sense to try and construct makeshift stretchers to transport the wounded back to the Gate, but they decided it was too risky for their health. And so they waited for nearly four more hours, without talking, and moving very little, until eventually the Apollo's commander, Colonel Ellis, came on the radio to let them know they were there. A few seconds later, they were all beamed up aboard the ship, where the injured were whisked away to the infirmary, and Alice followed Reynolds, Andrews and Walsh to meet up with Ellis and go over the details of the mission. That's where she finally learned who were the two men who died—members of Andrews's team (it wasn't technically an SG team, but there were four of them anyway)—and the two injured ones—one was a civilian mining equipment technician, and the other one was no other than Lieutenant Gabriel Rodriguez from Alice's own team that she still hadn't met at that time.

Once the debriefing was over and they were well on their way back to Earth, Alice excused herself and went to check on her men. She headed for the infirmary first and requested to speak with the medic that attended to Rodriguez. He told her that the young officer was stable but in serious condition; he caught a Jaffa staff blast into the shoulder and needed surgery as soon as they got him back to Earth.

Alice went to see the boy—she couldn't think of him in any other way—and found both Senior Airman Morgan and Technical Sergeant Watson already in the room, both sprawled on little plastic chairs next to the bed; she recognized them from photos in their personnel files. They both looked up when she entered and jumped to their feet.

The first thing that struck Alice about Morgan was just how young he looked; she knew he was only twenty-one, but he seemed even younger than that. His long face was smooth and clean-shaven and his amber eyes looked bright and curious. His hair was cut so close to the skull that it looked like a shadow on his head, and he had a small, jagged scar on his upper lip that made him look as if he was constantly smiling crookedly.

Watson, on the other hand, looked a bit older than he really was. Alice knew he was her own age, which she thought was a good thing—she might've found it difficult to command someone much older than herself. He also had a visible scar, but his was a thin line crossing his throat from one side to the other, as if it had been slashed with a knife. His face was more rectangular, with a wide jaw and a sizable forehead. He had blue eyes and dark blond hair, longer at the top and tapered on the sides.

"At ease," Alice told them both and waved her hand for good measure. "Fancy meeting you two here." She smiled a bit self-consciously, wanting to look amicable but not too chummy, and wondering what the hell she was doing. "I think I would've preferred a normal introduction, but alas! Well, I'm sure you already know who I am—Major Alice Boyd." She made an effort not to stumble over her new rank this time. "You must be Airman Morgan and Sergeant Watson. And that poor guy must be Lieutenant Rodriguez." She nodded at the man occupying the bed. He, too, looked very young—Alice knew he was twenty-three years old. His hair was longer than the other two's, and it was almost black. He had a longer face with more delicate features and thick eyebrows, and there was a shadow of a beard on his chin. He was unconscious, but Alice remembered from his photo that he had dark brown eyes.

The technical sergeant took it upon himself to reply to her. "Yes, ma'am, I'm afraid he's not in the best condition."

"The doctor told me he will need surgery as soon as we get back to Earth." Alice nodded again, looked around and found an empty chair next to an unoccupied bed close-by. She brought it closer and sat down, and so did her team members. "But he'll be alright eventually. How did it happen? Either of you saw?"

Watson shook his head. "It was right at the beginning, we were leading the civilians into the forest and Rodriguez stayed back with Andrews and his people to secure our rear."

"We only learned that he'd been hit once we got to the canyon," Morgan added. "Two of the miners helped him out, basically dragged him all the way there. He'd be meeting his maker right about now if not for them."

"You know who they were?" Alice asked, making a mental note to find and thank them.

"No, ma'am, I'm sorry."

"That's alright." She waved her hand dismissively; it would be in the reports. "Well, I'm glad he made it, and that neither of you were hurt." She looked at her watch, which was still showing Earth time. "We'll be arriving soon. When we do, I want you both to go home and get some rest. I don't wanna see either of you on the base before noon tomorrow, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am," they replied in unison and Alice hid a smirk.

"That was quite a first day as a team," she noted and they both nodded agreement.

"I believe we owe you our thanks, ma'am," Watson offered. "If you hadn't been there to take down that first wave when they rushed onto us, we might've not made it through. Good shooting, too."

Alice shrugged. "I had a good vantage point." She paused for a moment, and then asked: "You have any theories on who those mercs were, or how did they find out about our operations on the planet?" They'd already discussed it at length with Andrews, Reynolds and Walsh, but she was curious to see what her teammates would say.

"Not Lucian Alliance," Watson opined confidently. "If Lucian Alliance knew about any of our operations, they would've come in force, we wouldn't stand a chance. Probably a smaller offshoot, or maybe guns for hire. As to how they found out… I honestly think they might've just stumbled upon us."

"Yeah, they didn't seem to have planned their attack too well," Morgan added, a little nervously, as if he was trying to pass a test. It felt weird to have someone trying to impress her like that. "The only reason why they were even able to pin us down was because they had superior numbers and firepower."

"They came in, guns blazing, without any strategy other than overwhelming force," Watson agreed. "Still, they would've gotten us if you didn't show up when you did. I was literally down to my last mag."

"We would've come earlier, but they had guards around the Gate. We had to use a missile to clear the area before coming through."

"Oh, so that's why General Landry even authorized the rescue." Watson nodded thoughtfully. "I wondered."

"Yes, and…" Alice began, but stopped in the middle of the sentence when she felt the shift that signaled that they'd dropped out of hyperspace. "We're home," she guessed, and at the same time a couple nurses came into the room.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, we need to prep Lieutenant Rodriguez for transport," one of them said.

"Of course, we're outta here." Alice waved at the other two to leave with her.

The three injured people—Rodriguez, Bosworth and the civilian—were transported to the SGC infirmary first, and only then the rest of them got beamed down as well. Alice sent Watson and Morgan home, but herself stayed put until Rodriguez was out of surgery. The doctor who operated on him told Alice that the boy would need at least six weeks to heal up, and then at least four more weeks of physical therapy, but he had a good chance of recovering, with loss of function of the arm not more than five percent. Alice, having been through similar wounds before herself, felt reassured that he would eventually go back to work, although it meant that the SG-7 would be a man short for at least two and a half months, maybe more.

It was almost dawn when Alice finally got home. She entered the house quietly and tiptoed to the kitchen, where she got a glass of water, and was about to climb upstairs to take a shower and go to sleep for a few hours, when she noticed the light was on in the living room.

Deanna was huddled on the couch, with a book that slipped onto the floor and a blanket that only covered her lower part. Alice shook her head and approached the girl. She touched her very lightly and Dee instantly opened her eyes.

"Alice!" She croaked, blinking rapidly and sitting up. "What time is it?"

"It's four twenty in the morning," Alice replied softly, sitting down on the edge of the couch. "Why aren't you in bed?"

"I was waiting for you." Deanna rubbed her eyes tiredly. "I must have fallen asleep…"

"Why on Earth would you wait up for me?" Alice's voice rose an octave in surprise.

"I was worried." Her roommate shrugged. "You didn't come home for dinner and it was getting later and later… I tried to call you but it went to voicemail, I texted you, nothing… I mean, where were you?"

Alice sighed and put a hand on Deanna's shoulder.

"Dee," she said seriously. "I am a big girl, I can take care of myself. You do not need to know where I am at all times, and you do not need to worry about me." She paused, making sure that the message got through. "I was at work. I told you, I work a lot. I even have my own room on the base where I can get a few hours of shut-eye when needed."

Deanna's shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry. I freaked out a bit, didn't I? I just… I care about you, and when you didn't come home I got so worried… and on a Sunday! Why were you at work on a Sunday?"

Alice kept her demeanor composed and grave. "It doesn't matter, Dee. I think it's sweet that you were worried, but I need you to know that I'm not always going to be reachable, and most of the times I will not be able to talk about it. You'll just have to get used to it."

"It sucks," Deanna complained plaintively. "I really like you, Alice. I can't just turn the worrying off."

"I know, honey." Alice hesitated, but then continued in a measured tone: "You've only ever lived with your boyfriend, and your mother before that. But we're friends and roommates, Dee, our relationship is different. We're equals. I don't owe you explanations of my absences, and you don't owe any to me."

"You don't think I know this?" Deanna looked displeased with the situation put in such unambiguous terms.

"I'm just reminding you. There's gonna be lots of times when I stay out all night, sometimes for days or even weeks at a time. You can't torture yourself each time that happens."

"But what if something does happen to you?"

"If that's the case, my mom will be notified, and she'll let you know."

"Promise?"

"Promise." Alice got to her feet and stretched. "And now we should both get to bed for the few hours that remain of tonight. We need our beauty sleep, after all, don't we?" She smiled and winked at Deanna. The girl grinned back at her.

"Well, you don't seem to need it, Alice, you always look fantastic!"

Alice rolled her eyes. "Goodnight, Dee."

"Goodnight, Alice."

By the time Sergeant Watson and Airman Morgan appeared at the base the next day, Alice already had handled the notification to Rodriguez's next-of-kin, and had all of her paperwork in order; she was only missing reports from Watson and Morgan. They delivered those by the end of the day and so Alice could submit the entire package at once. She decided to delegate some of the bureaucratic mountain to Rodriguez, once he was back in action; for now, he was still in the infirmary. Alice, Watson and Morgan all went to visit him and he was conscious, but rather weak. He was very apologetic towards Alice—embarrassed that he got himself shot, and that he was going to be out of active duty for so long, and at the very beginning of his tenure, too. Alice consoled him by recounting her first mission on Atlantis and how she was out of commission for weeks after, too. They left him rest soon thereafter and went back to their separate work: Morgan and Watson to finalizing their reports (they were longer than hers, of course, since they included the entire week on the planet before the attack), and Alice to her research. It wasn't until the next day at 11:00 that they had their first briefing with General Landry.

Landry didn't mention the events the SG-7 experienced off-planet; instead, they discussed the latest news regarding Jareth's whereabouts in the Milky Way—which admittedly was rather scarce. The Wraith seemed to be trying to fly under the radar, and all they had were the photos taken by SG-12 a while back and a handful of gossip. Both SG-4 and SG-14 were hard at work trying to dig something up, connecting to the Earth's allies and putting out feelers everywhere they could, but they were coming up empty. A couple indeterminate sightings that brought little to no value to their hunt were all that they could find.

"He's covering his tracks too well," Landry said and sighed. "We know he and his minions must be feeding somewhere, but we have yet to find any evidence of cullings."

"And we probably won't," Alice noted. "We don't know just how many Wraith Jareth was able to move to the Milky Way before we blew up his ship, but even if it were a whole Hive, even five Hives—it's still just a fraction of the kind of force the Wraith have in the Pegasus. We have home turf advantage here, and Jareth is smart enough to know that. He's not going to take any risks until he establishes himself fully."

"So what's he doing in the meantime?" Landry asked, frowning.

"My bet is that he's using his abilities to get the resources he needs—including people to feed on. Instead of, or in addition to, searching for evidence of straight-up culling, we should be looking at strange cases of disappearances, or people behaving in an odd manner. Jareth's victims become akin to someone in a vegetative state when he's not around—that's a sure-fire way to recognize someone that's been bent. That's how we found him the last time—he'll be trying not to make the same mistakes again, of course, but sooner or later he'll slip up. We should make our allies aware of what they should look for."

"We can ask Teal'c to spread the word among the Jaffa," Watson added. "And send a message to the Tok'ra, visit the human worlds we know are friendly or even just neutral…"

"Is it wise to tell everyone that we're after Jareth?" Morgan asked with a hint of uncertainty in his tone. "What if it comes back to him? Do you think he knows that we know that he's alive?"

Alice frowned, surprised. That was an angle she hadn't considered.

"That's a good point," she admitted, and saw Morgan straightening up with badly covered pride. "Something to think about, sir," she told Landry.

"We've already been asking about Wraith sightings for the past few weeks," he said musingly. "If Jareth knows about it—what will he do about it, in your opinion, Major?"

Alice didn't reply right away. Trying to figure out what that psycho of a Wraith thought about anything wasn't exactly high on her list of pleasant activities, but if it brought them closer to getting rid of him…

"He's extremely cautious about everything he does," she said eventually. "Any rumor that we're looking for the Wraith—even if we never specified him, personally—he'll take it as a warning that we know about him, and he'll act accordingly. But—" she shrugged "—I don't see any other way than to continue inquiring at this point. We can't simply stop asking questions just because he might learn of it. We'll never find him if we do."

Landry nodded agreement. "We keep at it, then. Let's start with the Free Jaffa Nation. You'll go to Chulak tomorrow and talk to Teal'c. Fourteen and Four are both off-world but I'll send them along to other allies of ours with the updates as soon as they get back. Anything else we should be doing to get ahold of this Wraith?"

"No, sir, nothing immediately useful comes to mind, but we'll keep thinking," Alice promised, looking at her two teammates. They both nodded, Morgan eagerly and Watson composedly.

"Alright, then, that'll be all." Landry got up to his feet, prompting them to jump up, too. "Dismissed."

Alice was just leaving the locker room, dressed in the green BDU and with her hair tied in the smallest of buns, with a few locks still too short to get caught in the elastic and therefore tucked behind her ears, when she almost bumped into a familiar figure.

"Colonel Carter! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," Alice exclaimed, taking a step back to get out of the older officer's personal zone.

"Oh, no, I think that was me—I was just looking for you, Major." Carter smiled genially. "I heard you're going to Chulak?"

"Yes, ma'am, I was just heading to the armory. We leave in ten minutes."

"I'm not going to hold you up, I just wanted to ask—say hi to Teal'c for me, will you? I haven't seen him in a while. It's been hard to keep in touch while he's there and I'm wherever the Hammond needs to be…"

"Of course, ma'am, I'll tell him you asked after him." Alice smiled back warmly. It was touching to learn that Carter missed her friend—even if that friend was of another species.

"Thank you, Major. Now, don't let me hold you off." Carter stepped aside and Alice nodded to her with respect and walked off towards the armory to pick up her gear. Only halfway down the corridor she realized how odd it was that Carter happened to be there at all. It wasn't weird that she was on Earth—she had mentioned that the Hammond needed maintenance—but shouldn't she be supervising the repairs? Well, maybe she had another briefing with Landry—Alice didn't see another reason why a battlecruiser's commander would be at the SGC on a normal day.

Ten minutes later she, Morgan and Watson were all standing in front of the ramp leading to the Gate and watched it spin. None of them flinched when the kawoosh swished towards them; they were all used to this by now, even Morgan—who's only been in the Program for six months.

"SG-7, you have a go," came General Landry's voice through the speakers mounted in the walls. Alice turned around to look at him, nodded, and then led her men through the Gate.

It was quite a walk from the Stargate to the city. They met a couple people on the road, greeted them, but otherwise were not bothered until they got to the town. There, at the entrance, they were finally stopped by a Jaffa guard.

"Halt, travelers!" He hailed them as they approached. "Who are you and what is your purpose on Chulak, the birthplace of Jaffa freedom?"

"Hello. We're SG-7 of the Tau'ri, here to talk to Teal'c," Alice replied, wondering if she was keeping the customs. Maybe she should've said something like we come in peace or we come to confer with the brave Jaffa, Teal'c. It felt too silly, though.

"Tau'ri are friends to all Free Jaffa. You are welcome to enter, SG-7. You will find Teal'c in the Council Hall." He stepped aside to indicate free passage.

Alice nodded thanks and they went on. The Council Hall was the biggest building in town—she knew it used to be the Goa'uld main seat when they still held Chulak in their dominion. The Free Jaffa repurposed the palace to hold their High Council meetings in after Dakara had been destroyed by the Ori. Alice thought it was quite ironic on their part that an old symbol of slavery was now used as the seat of democracy.

At the entrance to the building they were greeted by a female Jaffa and shown to a room with a couple couches and chairs and a big window with a view on the city.

"Teal'c will be with you momentarily, there is a High Council meeting in session," the Jaffa told them and left.

"That's quite a nice view," Morgan noted, coming closer to the window.

"Yeah, they rebuilt it quite nicely." Watson nodded, joining him.

"Rebuilt? Why did they need to rebuild?"

"The Ori destroyed half the city when they first attacked. Chulak didn't want to go willingly," Watson explained and Alice reminded herself that the man had six years of experience at the SGC. Before being assigned to SG-7, he was part of the SG-17 for two years, and one of the SFs guarding the Gate before that—a career trajectory very much like her brother's.

"The Ori seem like ancient history," Alice mused quietly. Watson and Morgan turned around to look at her.

"Yeah, I caught the tail end of their presence in the galaxy." Watson shrugged. "Been pretty quiet ever since, except for the Lucian Alliance meddling."

"I was still flying 302s when they first appeared," Alice said. "They seemed invincible. And yet here we are, and they are not. Speaks to the resilience of humanity, I guess." She paused for a moment, looking behind her teammates, through the window. "I wonder if that's why we can't seem to get rid of the Wraith. They're even more resilient than we are."

"You don't believe we can, ma'am?" Morgan asked, his voice ringing with curiosity mixed with nervousness. Alice wondered why he continued to be so anxious around her—she didn't think she was particularly intimidating, so why did the boy act like this?

"I don't know," she replied truthfully. "But we have to try. And we absolutely have to find Jareth."

"You have history with him, don't you, Major?" Watson threw her a cautious look, as if making sure that he—what? Didn't offend her? What was it with these guys?

"I do," she admitted. "Quite a lot. Which is why I was reassigned to the SGC. I would've stayed in Atlantis otherwise."

"You didn't want to come back?"

She smiled joylessly. "All my friends are there—my brother's there, too." She hesitated, and then decided to tell the truth. "I don't really feel like I belong at the SGC just yet."

Neither of her teammates got to respond, because at that moment the door to the room opened and Teal'c appeared at the entrance. He looked almost the same as Alice remembered him—not a new wrinkle on his face—but his hair was longer and partially gray, and he was wearing the billowing Jaffa robes. He stepped into the room and bowed his head.

"Teal'c." Alice approached him and mimicked his gesture. "I am Major Alice Boyd, we had met a few years ago, do you remember?"

"Of course I remember you, Alice Boyd. It is good to see you again." He smiled magnanimously.

"Likewise. I am glad to see you well." She stepped back and waved at her teammates. "This is Senior Airman Charles Morgan and Technical Sergeant Richard Watson. We are SG-7."

"We have met before, too." Teal'c exchanged bows with Watson and then with Morgan. "But where is the fourth member of your team?"

"He was injured and stayed behind to heal," Watson offered as an explanation.

Teal'c nodded and then shifted his gaze back to Alice. "What do you need, Major?"

"Have you ever heard the name Jareth, Teal'c?"

He shook his head. "Who is that?"

"It's a Wraith." Alice pulled a photo from one of her tactical vest's pockets and handed it to Teal'c. It was a blow-up of the shot the SG-12 took of Jareth weeks before. "He found his way to this galaxy, and we have a reason to believe he's not the only one."

Teal'c took a long look at the picture. "He looks different from the Wraith I had seen."

Alice nodded. "He is very different." And she explained how they met him in the Pegasus galaxy, what his research seemed to be about, and what special abilities he had. She skirted around the details, only giving him the highlights—she kept her own part of the story to herself.

Teal'c listened without interruption. "And he is here, now?" He asked after she'd finished.

"This was taken by an SG team on an Alliance-controlled world." She pointed at the photo he still held in his hand. "We destroyed the ship he used to come over here, but we suspect it wasn't his first crossing, and so there may already be a number of other Wraith in this galaxy. And even if not—Jareth's special abilities make him a particularly dangerous opponent."

"Your mission is to find him?" He guessed.

"And neutralize him." Alice nodded again. "But he's smart—very smart. It was hard enough to find him in the Pegasus—we essentially got lucky, both times—but here, where people don't even know the first thing about the Wraith, much less a freak like Jareth… we need to cast a wide net. That's why we're here. If you could ask the Free Jaffa on other planets to be on the lookout and report anything suspicious back to us, we may have a better chance at getting to him."

Teal'c nodded thoughtfully. "I shall inform my brethren. We will inform you if we find anything. And kill him if we get the chance."

The casual ease with which he had said it shocked Alice a little, but she then remembered that Jaffa rarely minced words—and this one in particular. He wasn't only taciturn, but also very direct—Alice found it quite refreshing, though the idea that the Jaffa might actually get to Jareth before her seemed both preposterous and a little alarming. She had to find him. It was her redemption at stake.

"Be careful, though," Alice cautioned. "We have no idea how his abilities will work on your people. There is a chance they won't, at all—Jaffa physique differs from humans, your superior immune system might actually fight off whatever it is that allows Jareth to bend his victims. But, then again, we theorized that it's the Ancient gene that protects one from his influence, though we have too little data to say for sure."

"Tau'ri with the gene are immune?"

"Uh, not all." Alice felt her cheeks blush a little. "My theory is that only those with two dominant alleles are, but that's based on a single sample, so I might be very wrong. It might be something completely different."

"Single sample? Only one person has been able to withstand his brain-meddling?" Teal'c sounded almost surprised—for him, anyway.

"Yes." Alice sighed, and figured it would be strange if she didn't admit it was her. "It was me. That's one of the reasons I've been reassigned back here from Atlantis—I'm the only person we're sure is immune to him."

He took a long look at her. "I see."

Feeling awkward, Alice decided to move on. She pulled a crystal from one of her vest pockets and handed it to Teal'c. "Here is all the info we have on him. Please spread it around—and make sure you also take note of any weird disappearances, or people acting… strange, like if they're not all there."

"I'm afraid I don't understand your meaning, Major."

"People who have been bent by Jareth become sort of empty when he's not in proximity," Alice explained. "They'll eat and drink and all, but they won't talk, they'll just stare into space, completely unresponsive to stimuli. If you hear about anyone acting like that, let us know—aside from the fact that it could bring us a lead on Jareth's whereabouts, we are also able to help his victims. You know, make them, well, themselves again."

"We will keep our eyes open," Teal'c promised.

"Alright, then. I think that's all." Alice smiled, and then remembered something. "Oh, almost forgot—Colonel Carter asked me to say hi to you. She said she regretted that it's been so hard to keep in touch these days."

Teal'c nodded and smiled. "Thank you, Major. Please give Colonel Carter back my greetings. I'm sure it will get easier to connect now."

Alice raised her eyebrows, wondering why it would, and a suspicion sprouted in her mind, but she decided not to dwell at the moment.

"Well, thank you for your help, Teal'c. We should be going."

"I will walk you back to the Chappa'ai," he offered.

"That's very kind of you," Alice said, smiling. "Let's go, then."

They have already said goodbye after a nice walk back to the Stargate—though rather quiet, since neither Alice nor Teal'c were very talkative, and Morgan and Watson didn't seem eager to fill the silence either—and Alice had dialed Earth and was just sending the iris code when her radio came on.

"SG-7, this is Landry, come in."

"General, this is Boyd, we were about to come home," Alice replied, raising her eyebrows and throwing a look at her teammates. They seemed as confused as she felt. Teal'c turned back to listen, too.

"Don't go through, Major. We're experiencing technical difficulties with the Gate—we can't dial out, we can only receive incoming wormholes. However, SG-1 has missed their scheduled check-in. It's only been an hour, but if they are in trouble, we can't send any backup at this time. I need you to dial the address they went to, try to contact them over the radio and report back to me. Walter is sending the address to you now."

"Yes, sir, understood. Will get back to you soon as possible. Boyd, out." She cut the radio link and a few seconds later the event horizon broke in the middle and disappeared. She then proceeded to take out her mini-tablet, where the address info would've ended up. Then she dialed the Gate and switched on her radio once again.

"SG-1, this is Major Boyd of SG-7, please respond." She paused to give them time to reply, but no words came. She repeated her message two more times to make sure, but still the only thing she heard was the radio static.

"We should go through to see what has happened to them," Teal'c said calmly, though Alice thought he must have been concerned about his former team.

She shook her head. "We can't. If they found trouble, it's possible that the Gate might be guarded, we could be walking into a trap. We must report back to General Landry—perhaps there is a ship in the vicinity that can be dispatched to check up on them."

With the radio signal out, the Gate shut down and Alice dialed it once more.

"General, this is Major Boyd, unfortunately the SG-1 did not respond to our hails."

"That is unfortunate," came the response. "Major, I know you do not have a full complement in your team, but we have no team scheduled to come back in the next six hours and we can't wait that long. Is your team up for a rescue mission?"

Alice didn't have to look at Morgan and Watson to know how they felt about it.

"Yes, sir, we are."

"Alright. The closest 304 we have to that planet is the Gagarin. You will have to gate to P2X-005, the ship will collect you on its way."

"I will accompany you, Major," Teal'c added calmly. It wasn't a question or a suggestion, but a simple statement of fact.

Alice nodded. "Sir, Teal'c would like to come with."

"Good, he might help you, but you are in charge, Major."

Alice wasn't sure how to enforce that, since Teal'c was no longer officially part of the Stargate Program—he was technically speaking a third party, he didn't need to listen to her. She filed it under to be examined later and shrugged.

"Yes, sir."

"You should have the new Gate address by now. Good luck, Major. SGC out."

The wormhole disappeared again. Alice checked her tablet for the address and then turned to Teal'c and her team.

"Ready?"

"We can proceed, Major Boyd," Teal'c confirmed, pulling a zat gun from beneath his robe.

Morgan and Watson both picked up their P90s—which had been dangling from their vests till then—and nodded in unison.

Alice grabbed her own weapon in her right hand, dialed the Gate using her left, and they all went through to the other side.

P2X-005, Alice knew from reading old mission reports, was the planet where a prison transport ship Sebrus had crashed. SG-1 helped the ship's captain contain the escaped prisoners and repair the ship to return home–and since then, the planet was uninhabited. Nevertheless, Alice had Watson and Morgan establish a perimeter while they waited for the Gagarin to show up. It took about half an hour before they heard a voice on the radio greeting them with a heavy Russian accent, and they were beamed onto the bridge of the battlecruiser.

"Hello, welcome to the Yuri Gagarin," a man wearing a green camo uniform with three silver stars arranged in a pyramid on his epaulettes greeted them from the central chair.

"Colonel Shevchenko," Alice nodded respectfully. "I'm glad to see you well."

He rose and came down the steps to offer her his hand. "Yes, I understand I have you to thank for reigning in the chaos after we've got hit by the Ancient warship on our maiden voyage—and for making sure the ship survived the encounter. We have just left the dry-dock after doing all the necessary repairs—I hope this new mission won't bring us back there!"

Alice smiled, but she felt it was rather wan. The reminder, compounded by the wistful feeling she had coming back to this particular ship once again, cut straight through to her heart. This was where she had said goodbye to Karim—she could almost hear his voice, saying her name, pleading—asking her to kill him. And all of that for nothing—Jareth was still out there, and suddenly she felt like with every minute he was alive, she was betraying and disappointing Karim.

She blinked several times very fast, trying to chase away the swell of feelings, but she knew it was still audible in her voice. "I can't guarantee it, I'm afraid, sir—but we'll do all we can to rescue SG-1 and keep the Gagarin together."

"Good!" Maybe he noticed her desperate struggle against emotions, because he turned away and walked up to Teal'c to greet him.

Alice didn't listen to their conversation—instead she concentrated on her breathing, counting exhales, trying to still her furiously beating heart. When the colonel turned back to her again, she had a handle on herself again.

"Shall we proceed to the destination?" She asked him, and her voice, to her relief, sounded almost normal.

"Da," he agreed, sat back down in his chair and gave an order in Russian.

A few seconds later, they felt the odd shift as they entered hyperspace. Alice looked at Teal'c and her team, and then turned back to the polkovnik.

"We may need more gear than our usual load—can we use your armory?" She asked.

"Yes, yes, of course. Serzhant Andreyev, escort SG-7 to the armory," he ordered and they followed the young soldier to gear up.

For her and her team, that meant getting additional magazines, various types of grenades, and C4, all of which they already had, but in smaller amounts—after all, they had been visiting a friendly world. Teal'c exchanged his robes for a proper uniform—though of Russian design, which, Alice thought, must have been a first for him—and picked up an AK-74 and an MP-443—the Russian military's rifle and sidearm of choice—to accompany his zat gun. From the way he handled the weapons, Alice had no doubts that, though unfamiliar to him, he would have no trouble using them.

They returned to the bridge just on time to witness the ship dropping out of the hyperspace. It was always a peculiar feeling, one that Alice knew very well—yet she didn't often watch the event through the front window.

"That was quick," Watson noted from behind her. She turned around and nodded.

"Lucky that Gagarin was so close," she agreed. "And that there was a planet with a Gate on the way."

"We are not there yet," Shevchenko contradicted. "We dropped out at the edges of this solar system, just in case there's something in the orbit."

Alice nodded again. "That's smart. Do we have anything on sensors yet?"

Shevchenko said something in Russian, got a response from one of his men, and translated: "The planet will be in range in a few minutes. Nothing of significance yet."

Alice turned back to the window, though she knew she could not see as far with a naked eye as the sensors. Less than two minutes later, that same crewman—helmsman, if the Russians kept the same structure as on the American BC-304s—spoke up again. Shevchenko replied and they exchanged a few more words before the colonel turned to Teal'c, Alice, and her team.

"We have an unknown ship on the sensors, just above the planet," he said. "No IFF that we recognize, but it's a Ha'tak class."

"Do you mind if I take a look?" Alice waved at one of the terminals to her left.

"Be my guest, Major."

She walked up to the computer and with a few touches brought up a display of the bogey. All of the text was in Russian, but numbers were, thankfully, normal Arabic digits, and Alice knew these systems so well, she didn't really need to know the text.

"It's slightly bigger than normal," she opined confidently. "Shields are up, so we won't be able to penetrate with our Asgard transporter or sensors. Can we scan the planet for SG-1?"

Shevchenko gave an order again and Alice saw a pop-up window float into view on her display.

"Nothing," the colonel confirmed unnecessarily; she could see it on the screen. "And we're too far for radio contact."

"We're too far to the planet, but how about the ship?" She asked, turning around. "There is a high possibility that the SG-1 is aboard. If they are, they may be imprisoned, it certainly wouldn't be the first time—but it's worth to check."

"If they are indeed on board, Major Boyd—" Teal'c spoke up in his calm, steady voice "—and they have been captured, their radios will most likely have been confiscated. If we try to contact them, it could alert their captors to our presence."

Alice frowned and turned to the colonel. "That is true, sir. Of course, the Gagarin is more than a match for a single Ha'tak, but if it comes to a battle, we may risk destroying the ship with the SG-1 on board. On the other hand, trying to go in without even knowing if they're there is a dubious strategy."

"How would you go in?" Shevchenko got up from his chair and walked over to the galaxy map at the back of the room, waving them to join him. The position of the unknown ship was already marked with a pulsating blue light. "We can't beam you in unless they drop their shields. And you can't ring aboard for the same reason."

"Why do they have their shields up, anyway?" Watson wondered aloud. "It's not like there's any threat that they can see, is there?"

Alice shrugged. "Precaution, maybe? Or perhaps they're waiting for someone?"

"Either way, we have no way in," Shevchenko pointed out. "If the SG-1 is on board, and not imprisoned, if we contact them, could they drop the shield?"

"Possibly," Alice replied thoughtfully, looking at the map. "Let's call it plan A. What's the plan B?"

They all kept quiet for a moment, and then Morgan spoke up, a little nervously.

"Maybe we could go to the planet?"

Alice cocked her head for a moment and then nodded at him encouragingly to continue.

"If the SG-1 was captured there, there's probably rings there that are connected directly to the ship, right? Can't we use those?"

"We do not have the combination to unlock the rings," Teal'c put in.

"I bet I could reprogram the crystals, or we can even use ours on the ship, once we get the control crystal to connect with the Ha'tak." Alice shrugged. "I can see two variables, though: one, we don't know where on the planet the rings are, so we would have to look for them; and two, they may be heavily guarded."

"Actually, there is no-one on the planet at all," piped up the helmsman from his seat. Alice looked at him with her eyebrows raised. His accent was even stronger than Shevchenko's and for a second she wasn't sure if she understood him correctly. "The sensors are not picking up any life signs, human or Jaffa."

"Alright, then one variable." Alice nodded.

"The rings will probably be somewhere near the Stargate," Watson said. "But it still could take hours to find them. Are we confident that the SG-1 has that time?"

For a moment, nobody spoke. Alice was looking at the pulsating blue light and her mind was churning.

"There is a plan C," she revealed after a moment, her voice pensive. "We could try to fly into the Ha'tak."

"And how do you propose to do that?" Shevchenko sounded dubious.

Alice turned around and strode to the front of the bridge.

"Can you put a schematic of a Ha'tak ship on the HUD?" She asked the helmsman. He half-turned to look at his commander and the colonel repeated Alice's question in Russian. A moment later the Heads-Up Display flickered into view on the front window pane. Alice pointed at the diagram.

"We know that at any time, there is at least one place open to the vacuum on a Ha'tak ship, where atmosphere is held within with a force shield: the Glider bay. I bet we could take a couple of 302s and fly inside if we can spoof the ship's IFF."

"And how do we do that?" Shevchenko asked again, and then continued, without waiting for an answer: "They will start shooting at you as soon as you approach them. How do you want to get through?"

"With a little misdirection," Alice explained and tapped another section of the diagram. "This is where the Ha'tak's sensor array is located. We can take it down first. With the IFF spoofer engaged, we should be able to penetrate the shield as if we were friendlies and destroy the target with missiles."

"They will surely deploy Gliders against us," Teal'c cautioned.

Alice nodded. "We will put the entire 302 squadron out to help us. Without sensors, the Ha'tak won't be able to target them with main weapons, so all they need to do is distract the Gliders while we fly into the ship. As soon as we're in, the 302s can be recalled. You can finish any pursuing Gliders with railguns or missiles."

"What if the ship jumps into hyperspace?" Shevchenko was frowning, looking at the schematics on the HUD.

"Without sensors? That would be suicide." Alice shook her head. "No doubt they will set off to repair the damage, so we'll have limited time on board. But it's a plan we can execute fairly quickly, and we can even try to contact SG-1 first, since we're going to be showing ourselves to the enemy anyway."

"What about the IFF?" The colonel asked, eyeing Alice sideways.

"I'm sure I can spoof it," she answered, shrugging again. "We already have that technology—Doctor McKay invented it for use with Wraith Hive ships, so it shouldn't take long to replicate it with this ship's unique IFF. With it, the Ha'tak will recognize our 302s as its own Gliders, and the force shield should let us in."

"I'm not sure about this plan," Shevchenko declared.

"If it doesn't work, we get back to the Gagarin, beam to the planet and try to execute plan B before they manage to repair their sensors and jump into hyperspace."

"And who's going to fly the 302s?"

Alice smiled. "Teal'c and myself, of course." Seeing doubt on his face again, she added: "That was my first job in the Stargate Program, Colonel. I was part of the original Prometheus's 302 squadron. And of course Teal'c knows the fighters like the back of his hand." She inclined her head towards the Jaffa; he bowed back with an inscrutable expression.

"If we succeed at destroying all their sensors—" Watson spoke up with a frown on his face, looking closely at the diagram "—can they still go after the Gagarin using manual targeting?"

"Yes," she had to admit. "But the ship's shields should hold without problems, and you can play a little cat and mouse with them," she told Shevchenko.

He seemed to like the idea. "That would be a great real-life practice for my crew," he said. "Unless of course you're wrong about our shields."

Alice looked at the HUD and sighed. "We can never predict all eventualities. I don't think they should have anything more powerful than a standard Ha'tak. And I assume Gagarin is running the new power core?" This, she knew, was an upgrade on the previous BC-304's core version that was the result of their research into the Asgard core on the Odyssey.

"Da. Still, we got pretty well beaten down the last time we fought an alien ship," Shevchenko noted.

"That was an Ancient ship powered by three ZPMs." Alice shook her head. "There is no comparison. I think maybe only Ori ships could come close, and the previous generation BC-304—such as the Daedalus —were still able to withstand two Ori shots. If worse comes to pass, you simply jump into hyperspace and report back to Homeworld Command."

"And leave you there?"

Alice nodded solemnly. "That's the job, Colonel. If we can, we'll free SG-1 and get down on the planet, use the Gate to escape. Do not put the ship in danger because of us."

He harrumphed, but didn't object further. "Alright, if you think you can pull it off, let's do this."