Chapter 3, part 2.

It took Alice less than half an hour to spoof the enemy ship's IFF using Doctor McKay's program. In the meantime, she sent Morgan and Watson, accompanied by Teal'c, down to the planet to look for the rings, just in case they could find them easily. However, they came up with nothing; the planet was an abandoned Naquadah mine, and had endless structure of interconnected underground caves where people used to live and work; it made the search very difficult and time-consuming. They were beamed back up as soon as Alice had finished with the IFF spoofer. Then all four of them headed towards the 302 hangar.

Putting on the breathing mask, Alice had a strong sense of déjà vu; the crew spoke Russian and some broken English, and the hangar was bigger than the one on the Prometheus, but all the rest was the same: the ramp she climbed to get into the cockpit, the gear she had to put on, all the different switches and dials on her dashboard. She smiled, remembering that anxious, self-conscious girl that she'd been at the time when she served on the Prometheus. How things have changed; that nervous little girl didn't exist anymore. How would she feel had she known what fate had in store for her? For a second, Alice thought about what would she have said to her younger self. Don't hesitate to shoot when you have the chance. Or would she? The words of her older self from the future sounded off in her ears: I don't regret anything. And even knowing the price to pay—I'd do it again. But she, Alice of the present, did know the price to pay—and she chose different. If she had known then all that she knew now—would she have taken that shot? Would she have destroyed Jareth, and Karim with him, knowing what it would have taken away from her? Eight months—that was all she got with Karim. Eight months of happiness… and yet, when presented with the same conundrum, she made a choice to end it.

And she chose wrong. Because while Karim had perished—Jareth had survived. So it was all for nothing. Unless she found and disposed of Jareth, once and for all.

She shook her head to chase away her errand thoughts. Morgan climbed after her and took second seat, instructed by a heavily-accented Russian on how to put on his breathing mask. The hangar was full of activity, with the deck crews running hither and thither and 302 pilots walking to their birds. The Gagarin had a full complement of sixteen spacefighters. Alice and Teal'c took two, but all the rest would be manned by the Russians.

She flicked the switch to open an internal communication channel. "Squadron, this is Tinkerbell, I will be running this game today," she said with another nostalgic smile. She hadn't had the chance to use her callsign in a long time. "I assume you have all been briefed, so I won't repeat it all." She wondered vaguely if all the pilots understood English. It seemed to her that most of the crew did, even if they could only speak it in a very limited way. "Our ultimate goal is to rescue SG-1, so keep that in mind. Good luck."

"Good luck to you to, Tinkerbell. Bring SG-1 home safely," someone replied, and Alice assumed it was the squadron's commander.

"That's the plan. All ready?" She asked, pushing a button to close the canopy. She then switched the intercom to unit-only and asked: "Morgan, you okay in there?"

"Yes, ma'am," came the boy's response. Alice thought he didn't sound particularly confident and she reminded herself that, despite being part of the Air Force, he had probably never even sat in a fighter jet before.

"Good."

In the meantime, acknowledgments from other spacecraft were coming in, and all the deck crews cleared the area.

"All the squadron ready to go, Tinkerbell," the commander said a moment later, and Alice was grateful; she had a hard time following the Russian names—or were they callsigns?

"We are ready as well, Major Boyd," Teal'c added.

Alice took a deep breath, mentally ran through the entire plan once again, and then exhaled slowly.

"Let's go."

The 302s roared to life almost at the same time and all started rolling along the slingrail, gaining up speed. Alice revved up the engine and soon enough they passed through the battlecruiser's force field and shot into space, Alice at the front, with Teal'c on her right and two other fighters completing the finger-four formation. She heard Morgan gasp behind her and smirked. That's just the beginning, my friend.

The Gagarin left behind them, they got closer to the other side of the planet. Ha'tak's sensors obeyed the line of sight rule; which is why the cruiser could get so close without being detected in the first place—it hid behind the planet. As soon as the squadron would get out into the open, the enemy ship would register them.

It was time to try contact via radio. Strengthened by the Gagarin's powerful communication relay, the signal should be able to reach the Ha'tak—a feat not possible with the limited range of hand-held radios on the ground, which is why, Alice hoped, her initial call through the Stargate didn't go through.

"SG-1, this is Major Boyd of SG-7, come in," she said, having switched the dial to outgoing communication. She then waited with bated breath, but nothing came in. "SG-1, if you can hear me, please respond." Again, nothing for a moment—and then came the response.

"This is Major Hailey of SG-1," a woman breathed through the radio, her voice no louder than a gentle whisper.

"Hailey, what's your situation?" Alice asked, exhaling with relief. It was good to hear from someone—certainly made executing the plan much easier.

"I'm aboard a Ha'tak. The rest of my team has been captured by enemy forces. I don't think they know I have escaped, though—they don't seem to know the team has grown recently."

"Who are they?"

"I'm not sure. We thought they were Lucian Alliance, but they don't look like mercenaries. I think they're all Jaffa, but they have different symbols." She was referring to, Alice knew, the tattoos all Jaffa bore on their foreheads: signs of the Goa'ulds they used to serve.

"Can you drop the shield so we can beam you all out?" Alice didn't have much hope for that—she thought if Hailey could have done something, she already would have.

"No, the shield generator is heavily guarded," the SG-1 science representative confirmed Alice's assumption. "I may be able to sabotage their hyperdrive, though."

Alice thought for a moment and then shook her head, though nobody could see it.

"No, better not. We have a rescue plan—we're going to target their sensors, so make sure you're not anywhere near there, there's gonna be a hull breach." Alice shuddered slightly at the memory of her own exposure to vacuum—twice now. "But. If you can make your way towards the Glider Bay, we're going to be coming in that way. May be useful to flank the opposition."

"Alright. I hope you're right about this plan," the other major said dubiously. "Hailey, out."

Alice switched the dial back to internal comms. "All right, squadron. Time to dance."

At her signal, the entire squadron sped towards the other side of the planet and the ship hanging above it. There was, Alice knew, a slight probability that it might simply jump into hyperspace before the 302s even manage to get close; she didn't think it very likely, but couldn't discard that possibility either. They approached quickly, the fighters swallowing miles, and Alice waited with bated breath to see the Ha'tak's response. A few seconds later, she exhaled with relief, even though she had to move the stick wildly to avoid being hit by the massive staff cannon blast coming from the superstructure surrounding the pyramidoid center of the ship. The violent movement pushed her into her seat with the force of several gs. By a fighter pilot's standards, it was nothing, especially that it lasted mere seconds before the inertial dampeners kicked in for good; but she heard Morgan in the back seat gasp again. She didn't have time to check in with him, though.

The Ha'tak was firing their staff cannons in quick succession, targeting the approaching fighters. Alice could see Teal'c's 302 next to her dancing around to evade the high-energy shots; she was doing a similar dance of her own. Still, they were steadily creeping up to the ship. The pulsating dots on her HUD showed the remaining two spacecraft in her flight keeping close behind, and the rest of the squadron following, stretched across a vast area.

And then new dots appeared on the radar, spilling out from the Ha'tak: Gliders. As she cut the distance to the ship, she was also approaching them; they were, in fact, coming to meet in the middle.

"Squadron, level up with me," she ordered via comms, reducing her own velocity. "Teal'c, let's hang back a little."

They were quickly joined by the remaining fighters, four finger-fours flying in one line. The Ha'tak stopped firing—perhaps they were now too close, or perhaps they didn't want to risk hitting their own.

"Tie 'em up, boys, we'll get rid of the sensors," Alice commanded, and then added: "Flight, keep on our six, will you?"

"Vas ponyal!" Someone replied, and Alice guessed it must have meant ok, because the squadron leader added in a second:

"Understood, Tinkerbell."

They were now mere two klicks from enemy Gliders.

"Flight, let's break right and up at my signal," she said, and immediately added: "Now!"

She jerked the stick and the 302 moved up just as the bogey ahead of her began firing. She went into a spin, evading more shots, and then she was above the battlespace, and moving away from it, Teal'c still on her right, the other two fighters a little way behind her. They were so close to the ship now that it took them only a few seconds to reach the area where the sensor array was located.

The enemy, however, must have noticed the danger, because a number of Gliders were breaking away from the dogfight below and turning up.

"Here we go," she murmured to herself, pushing a button to engage the IFF spoofer. The pointed tip of the F-302's nose glinted bluishly—Alice internally tensed, expecting to be zapped with energy—and then they were beneath the shield. She had to quickly reduce the speed and pull up to avoid crashing into the ship's hull; flying along its sides, she checked if Teal'c was following; he was.

"Fire at will," she instructed him, and released her missile. She had to swerve narrowly to avoid the blast; the projectile found its mark, followed quickly by another one, launched by Teal'c.

"Tinkerbell to Gagarin, first objective accomplished, can you confirm?" Alice switched to outgoing communication.

"Da, looks like you got it all, Major," came Shevchenko's reply. He pronounced her rank as if it were mayor and it momentarily amused her. I'm the fucking mayor of this town, she thought to herself, steering her fighter away from the hull breach that was now spilling debris, and towards the underside of the ship, where she knew the Glider bay was located. But her luck had run out—as she turned, six Gliders descended upon her like a flock of very angry birds and she had to break up, once again going through the shield—this time away from the ship. She put the fighter into a spin again, rolling at the same time; as she did, one of the Gliders beneath her burst into pieces, hit by an AAM launched by one of the other fighters from her flight. It was a peculiar sight—there was no fire, of course, because of lack of oxygen, but the force of the blast tore it to shreds nevertheless.

She swerved violently, narrowly evading a cannon shot from she knew not even where, and saw that Teal'c was in trouble: with two Gliders on his tail and one flying above him, he had nowhere to go. Alice put her 302 in a spin again and into a half-barrel roll, and ended up behind the whole party. She rose just enough to get on the upper bogey's tail and launched another missile. The Glider broke right to avoid it, but the Russian R-77's active radar was not fooled; it followed, and a few seconds later it found its mark. In the meantime, Teal'c broke up, flying in a zigzag that let him dodge the staff blasts from the remaining two pursuers. At that moment Alice had to turn again herself to avoid an enemy coming straight at her.

"Squadron, we need a little help here," she called through the intercom. Behind her, Morgan was groaning as the spacecraft's sudden moves kept slapping them with g-forces of the kind he would have never experienced before.

A string of commands in Russian flew through the radio, and a moment later six fighters broke away from the main battlespace and turned towards Alice and her formation.

She got another successful shot before they joined them, tying up the remaining Gliders in a close-quarter dogfight.

"Teal'c, let's make for the Glider bay entrance," Alice said, rolling again to get out of the fray. A moment later, Teal'c's 302 appeared right beside her. "Flight, make sure our six is clear on the approach."

The bay was on the other side of the ship, but now that they weren't maneuvering to avoid being shot, it took less than a minute to get there. Alice noted that a couple Gliders tried to follow, anyway, but they had to evade the two Russians in her flight, and fell back.

The door to the bay was open, the entrance protected by a force field that held the air within. Once again, as the nose of the fighter glinted as it penetrated the shield, Alice held her breath, but the IFF spoofer still worked, and a second later they were inside, slamming on the brakes.

"Hold on, it's gonna be a hard landing!" She warned Morgan as she dropped the landing gear just in time. They bounced off the floor a few times, tires screeching and the downward-pointed wings scraping against the launch rails that were used to shoot Gliders out of the bay at great speed. Finally, they came to a halt literally feet from the end of the runway. Alice exhaled with relief, and then noted that Teal'c's landing was much more controlled. Oh well, he knew better what to expect, she told herself, but couldn't help a grimace of displeasure at herself. She flicked the comms.

"Gagarin, second objective achieved. We're moving in."

"Good luck, Major," Shevchenko replied. Before she turned off the intercom, she heard him issue an order in Russian and she knew he was recalling the F-302s.

She removed her breathing mask and opened the canopy. Despite the urgency, she took a second to stretch—she had become so tense during the fight that all of her back ached. Then she moved to climb out of the cockpit and threw a look at Morgan. She thought he looked a little pale and a bit shaken, but he gave her a weak smile when he noticed her glance, and immediately followed her down.

They were joined by Teal'c and Watson before they approached the only door in sight, aside from the gate to where the Gliders would be issuing when deploying. Alice thought it would be useful to have a life signs detector, like the one she'd used in the Pegasus, just to know if there was anyone waiting on the other side. Picking up her P90 and gesturing to her team to spread on both sides of the entrance, she resolved to try and replicate the technology when they were back home.

She nodded to Teal'c and he opened the door. Alice swung around the corner with the gun up and ready, but the short corridor ended with another door; it was empty. There was no way to take better defensive positions there, so they all filed in and Alice pushed the large button that controlled the door. It opened onto a staircase, also empty. Alice led them up, taking two steps at a time to make it quicker. They ended up on a narrow landing that extended and grew wider a few paces in; and then the ceiling suddenly went up and they walked out into a large room that normally housed the Ha'tak's squadron of Gliders—now empty, of course. They stood on a raised platform which joined a similar one on the other side of the bay by a way of a number of crisscrossing gangways. Alice gestured at her team to move on, but before they were even halfway through, the door on the other side opened, admitting a group of Jaffa, all armed with staff weapons.

"Fire at will!" Alice ordered, dropping onto one knee—hoping the railing of the overpass in front of her would offer at least some protection from the energy bursts—and started shooting. The familiar staccato of P90 fire immediately followed from behind her, accompanied by a slightly higher and faster noise of Teal'c's AK-74. A few staff blasts flew towards them, but none were accurate—even though one exploded on the railing right next to Alice's face; and then there was another gunfire sound from the other side, and a few moments later all the hostiles lay on the ground and a short woman with blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, and dressed in SGC green uniform emerged from the entrance.

"All clear on this side," she called to them. Alice got up to her feet and walked towards her, never taking her finger off the trigger, though, just in case.

"Thanks," Alice told the woman, noting that she was almost the same height and age; maybe half an inch taller and a year or two older, but not more than that. "Major Hailey, I presume?"

"That's me. And you must be Major Boyd." Hailey nodded and then looked behind her and smiled. "Hi, Teal'c."

"Good to see you alive and well, Major Hailey," Teal'c replied and Alice could almost hear him bowing his head.

"That's Morgan and Watson, my team," Alice added as a way of a presentation. "Let's get out of here before they send in reinforcements."

"Good call." Hailey nodded again and waved at them to follow her.

Walking quietly through the empty corridors made Alice think back to all these times she had done it previously on Wraith Hive ships—most recently during her foray into the future. But, at least, Goa'uld vessels were much less creepy, though this particular one seemed also much busier than it should be. They had to stop, find different routes, or hide out many times, before Hailey ushered them into what looked like a storage room. She closed the door behind them and then turned around to Alice expectantly.

"So, what's the plan?"

Alice shook her head. "First things first. How did you get here? And where's the rest of SG-1?"

Hailey sighed. "We were checking out a tip that this planet served as Lucian Alliance cargo drop-off for some trades," she said, sitting down on a metal crate that contained who knew what. "We were sweeping through the place when we encountered a Jaffa unit. I was away—checking out some strange energy readings, when I heard the gunfire. I ran there, but the team was already stunned and being dragged away. I hid and observed as they took them to the rings. I followed after a few minutes, hoping whatever ship they went to—I knew it had to be a ship on the orbit—didn't go to hyperspace yet. It didn't, and I arrived here without them noticing—the ring room was empty. I've been wandering around trying to find an opening to actually do something, and was about to try to sabotage their hyperdrive when you contacted me." She then pointed upwards with her thumb. "Mitchell, Daniel and Vala are held in a cell somewhere on the level above us."

"What could be the purpose of those Jaffa in capturing you?" Teal'c asked; he stood near the door, weapon at the ready, accompanied by both Watson and Morgan.

Hailey shook her head. "No idea, Teal'c. Could be that they truly are Lucian Alliance or other mercs—there's a standing bounty on all our heads." She shrugged. "But if that is so, why have they not moved from this position yet?"

"They're most likely waiting for someone." Alice nodded pensively. "Why else would they not move from here, yet keep their shield on?"

The other major hmphed, but didn't reply.

"You said that the shield generator is heavily guarded," Alice continued after a momentary silence. "How heavily exactly?"

"There's only one entrance to the room, and there's like two dozen Jaffa standing in front of it." Hailey sighed again. "I tried to go from above, you know, drop some C4 in? But that entrance is completely sealed, can't get in without specialized equipment." She paused for a moment, and then added: "They are here in force. You've seen it yourself—it's not normal to have that many patrols out on the corridors. That's odd, because they didn't seem to be looking for me, so I assume they don't know I've joined the team."

Alice nodded thoughtfully again. She knew that, until recently, SG-1 consisted of Colonel Mitchell, Doctor Jackson, Vala Mal Doraan, and Teal'c; but that last one stepped down to join—and lead—his people on Chulak, and Jennifer Hailey was recalled from Area 51, where she had been working for the past five years or so, back to SGC, to complement the squad of SG-1. It was entirely possible that the major players of the galaxy didn't know yet of the changing of the guard.

"Perhaps they are looking for Teal'c," she suggested, shooting him a wondering look. "You were part of the team until recently. Maybe they assumed you'd be here, too."

"But they're not actively looking for anyone," Hailey contradicted. "They're just walking around in patrol formations. As if they were scared of infiltration, but not aware of one yet."

"Well, they're aware of us now," Watson put in soberly.

"Alright." Alice looked up at the ceiling. "Do you know if they're guarding the cell where they hold the rest of your team?"

"If they weren't before, they're surely gonna do it now." Hailey shrugged.

"Alright," Alice repeated. "Let's do a little reconnaissance. Teal'c, take Morgan and Watson and try to find and release SG-1. If there's too many guards, just leave and wait for us here," she cautioned. "In the meantime, Major, how about we try to find a console and find out what's going on here?"

Hailey shook her head. "I tried, but the only consoles worth a damn are on the bridge and in the control room two levels down. I was about to try the control room because there were only half a dozen of Jaffa in there, but now they might guard it better, knowing that you're here."

"Well, there's two of us now." Alice shrugged. "And we have to do something."

"I think it would be prudent to find Mitchell, Daniel and Vala first," Hailey protested. "Then we'll have more firepower."

Alice cocked her head to the side, thinking. "Teal'c and my team can handle it," she decided. "And I don't want to risk us all getting taken out. If we split up, even if one group does get captured, the other one's still there to do something about it."

Hailey mulled it over for a minute and then nodded. "Okay, let's do it your way."

As Hailey had predicted, the control room was guarded with additional troops, but the two majors still managed to get in without a scratch on themselves. Alice couldn't help but compare these Jaffa to the Wraith; formidable fighters as they were, they could not measure up to the human-Iratus hybrid in terms of strength and endurance. A single well-placed bullet could stop a Jaffa, even though it wouldn't kill him; only a headshot could do the same to a Wraith, and even then it was not a given.

Having locked the door behind them, both Alice and Hailey set to work on two different consoles, trying to find some clues in the ship's log as to what was going on.

"It says here that they were attacked by their own people," Hailey spoke up after a few minutes of diligent silence. "They went to the planet called Wenet, where they met with Lucian Alliance to trade… they were buying Goa'uld symbiotes."

Alice walked up to her to look over her shoulder. "Makes sense. I remember my brother telling me years ago that there was a growing number of Jaffa dissatisfied with the Free Nation's dependence on Tretonin. They prefer to continue to procure symbiotes instead of relying on a drug, which is controlled by the Council on Chulak."

Hailey nodded and went on: "A party of Jaffa went out to meet with the Alliance's representatives, but when they returned, they came empty-handed, and instead, they attacked the others. There were humans with them, too, and the Jaffa barely managed to push them back and escape."

"Interesting," Alice said, trying for a nonchalant tone, and failing. Hailey looked up at her with raised eyebrows. "It kinda sounds like maybe they have been targeted by Jareth."

"The Wraith you, SG-4 and 14 are tasked to find?"

"The very same." Alice nodded. Then she rummaged in her tactical vest and took out a small tablet. "Let's copy that report, maybe it'll be helpful."

Hailey took the tablet and leaned over the console to attach it. In the meantime, Alice went back to the other computer and looked over the rest of the log.

"There's nothing else that would explain their weird behavior," she said after a moment, a bit hesitatingly; everything was written in a Goa'uld dialect she didn't know very well. "But, on the other hand, I found a way to disable the shields—at least temporarily—without having to get to the generator itself."

"Really? How?" Hailey finished the download—Alice noted it took her quite some time; probably she had copied the entire log—and unclipped the tablet from the console.

"If we take out four out of six main breakers—here, here, here and here, or possibly here and here—" she pointed to a diagram on her own console "—that supply power to the shield generator, it will run out of juice and fade out. They can restore it by redirecting power from other systems, but it will take a little time. The Gagarin will manage to beam us out before they do."

"Good thinking," Hailey agreed. "And since we're here, we might want to do some damage to their systems?" She waved at the consoles. "I'm pretty sure I can damage their hyperdrive from here by overloading it."

Alice thought for a moment and then nodded. "Won't hurt. But let's check in with the others, first." She turned on the radio. "Teal'c, come in."

"Yes, Major Boyd," came the Jaffa's calm voice.

"What's your situation?"

"We have reached the cell block and got rid of the guards," Teal'c replied serenely. "But Cameron Mitchell, Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doraan are unconscious. We are trying to wake them up, unsuccessfully so far."

"Looks like they have been tortured," Watson added, his voice crackling on the radio waves.

Alice and Hailey exchanged concerned looks. "Alright, let us know when they do wake up."

"Split up?" Hailey asked, her eyebrows all the way up.

Alice nodded. "Let's. We'll cover more ground. You have enough C4?"

"Yeah, should be. Let me just deal away with the hyperdrive, and we can go."

Alice nodded and watched her for a while. Then she turned around and moved closer to the door, listening intently for a moment. She thought she heard a sound from the other side.

"We're gonna have to shoot our way out," she warned.

"Didn't expect anything else," Hailey confirmed distractedly. She then straightened up and threw a smile at Alice. "All done."

"Alright, then. Let's do this."

The breakers were hidden beneath sliding panels on the golden, ornamented walls, and it wasn't easy to find them, even knowing their general position. Nevertheless, Alice managed to reach and deal away with one of them before the radio came on again.

"Major Boyd, the SG-1 is awakening," Teal'c informed her.

She didn't respond right away; she could hear a Jaffa patrol marching towards her, so she had to seek shelter first, and wait until they passed her.

"Good news, Teal'c," she breathed into her radio. "Stay put for now. We're going to take out the shields shortly."

"And how are you planning to do that?" This time it was someone else's voice; Alice recognized Mitchell, even though she hadn't spoken to him in years.

"We're going to blow up the main breakers. This will overload the power lines and effectively deprive the shield generator from power, at least for a little while—should be enough for the Gagarin to be able to beam us all out of here."

"Alright, that doesn't sound half bad," Mitchell admitted. "What's your status? How can we help?"

"I'm on my way to set the charge on the second breaker."

"Same here," Hailey's voice piped up. "ETA ten minutes."

"We've set the timer for an hour and a half, just to be sure, though we can detonate remotely at any time before then," Alice added, and then replied to the colonel's second question: "You should just hang tight, sir, we'll be done in no time."

There was a moment of silence—Alice assumed that Mitchell was consulting with the rest of his team.

"Roger that, Major. We'll keep our heads down in the meantime."

Alice switched the radio off, put it back in a pocket, and moved on to her next target. She was only two minutes away—and a moment later, the charge was set, and she was looking at her watch and calculating distance in her head.

"Hailey, what's your status?" She asked, activating the radio again and starting to walk along the corridor.

"Got delayed, had to take another route to avoid a patrol," the other major replied quietly. "Still ten minutes away."

"Alright, I'm done with mine—I'm gonna try to get back to the Glider bay."

"What? Why would you do that?" It was Doctor Jackson's voice asking the question now, and despite the circumstances, Alice smiled hearing it. She liked him.

"I'm gonna try to put a locator beacon on our 302s so that the Gagarin can pick them up, too. Would be a shame to lose two machines," she explained. They cost a fortune, she knew, and although such losses were included in the Stargate Program's enormous budget, it would really be good to avoid them.

"That's risky," Mitchell warned, but didn't protest. "The bay might be crawling with Jaffa by now."

"I doubt that. They probably don't expect us to come back there—it'll be guarded for sure, but shouldn't be more than I can handle. And if there are too many, I'll retreat and we'll blow the breakers and get beamed away."

"Alright, Major, but be careful." There was a moment of silence—interrupted only by static from the radio—and then Mitchell added: "We're on the other side of the ship, so we won't be able to bail you out if it goes south."

"I'll be careful," Alice promised. "Gagarin, you copy all that?"

"Yes, Major, we're standing by for transport as soon as the shields go out," Shevchenko replied—his voice, amplified by the battlecruiser's powerful communication relay sounded clearer from thousands of miles away than Mitchell's did.

"Alright, I'm going in. Boyd, out."

By this time, she was almost back at the Glider Bay. She noted without surprise that the bodies of the Jaffa they had fought were no longer there; only a large pool of rust-colored blood betrayed that something had happened here. She didn't have time to get hung up on how many people—Jaffa—she had killed or at least gravely wounded that day, but she knew there would be hell to pay later—and it wasn't yet the end.

Both platforms and the crisscrossing bridges in between were empty; Alice flew through them quickly, without stopping, and got to the door that led to a staircase. There, she paused, remembering there was a short corridor next, which opened onto the runways. She passed it without incident, and then opened the last door and looked out, expecting Jaffa to guard the 302s—and she wasn't wrong. There were over a dozen sentries posted around the two fighters; one of them saw her leaning out of the doorway, called to the others, and Alice had to jump back to avoid being hit by energy blasts. The tactical situation wasn't very good: there was no shelter anywhere between the entrance and the craft, and the short corridor afforded no real cover either—she had to step back almost to the end of it to get clear of the line of fire. On the other hand, the Jaffa had nowhere to hide, either; in fact, Alice could hear them running towards her, which gave her an idea. She pulled a flashbang grenade from her tactical vest pocket, removed the safety pins, took a deep breath, and stepped back into the corridor, throwing the grenade towards the group of approaching Jaffa. She then hunkered back, turning her head away; she heard the loud bang as the charge went off, and, even from yards away, caught the flash of light from the corner of her eye. Without wasting time, she swung around the doorway, P90 in hand, and started firing before even registering the scene; a few sentries were on the ground, apparently having lost their balance after experiencing 180 decibels and over a million candela; others were teetering, or reflexively turned their heads away in the least. The ones furthest away from the detonation saw Alice and two of them targeted her with their staff weapons, but she didn't even have to move; their shots went wide, their aim being affected with the force of the flash. Alice's bullets, on the other hand, inexorably found their marks, downing one after another, until she was the only person left standing on the runway.

She breathed heavily and blinked her eyes, looking around at the carnage she had caused; most of the Jaffa had gotten rounds into their torsos, which they had a chance to survive, thanks to their symbiotes; a few had been headshots, though, and for a second Alice felt sorry and wished she hadn't been such a great marksman. Then she shook her head, told herself she didn't have any other choice, and started moving towards the 302s. A moment later, she stopped in her tracks. The floor seemed to shake for a moment, which was a curious feeling aboard a space vessel, but one that Alice knew well.

"What was that?" A voice asked over the radio, and she picked up her receiver to reply, but didn't get to do so.

"Another Ha'tak just dropped out of hyperspace," Shevchenko informed. "It just started firing at the one you're in. You better hurry."

Alice looked at the distant exit from the runway—were there was a portal that led to the vastness of space, only separated from the vacuum with a thin veil of a force field. She felt another hit, and saw the field ripple—it looked as if sparks were running through an invisible barrier. Fuck, she thought, and leaped into a run. She almost collided with the first 302, halted at the last moment, rifled through the few odds and ends she had in one of the pockets, and finally pulled a locator beacon—but only one. Fuck, she repeated in her head, attaching it to the hull of the fighter. Oh, well, let's just improvise, she told herself, ducking under the wing and springing towards the other spacecraft. As she stepped closer, the ground shook again, this time more violently, and she threw a worried look back at the force field. It was flickering with ever-increasing frequency. She didn't have a lot of time.

There was no ramp, of course, so Alice had to climb the wing carefully to get to the cockpit. She made it almost at the very last possible moment—she just got onto the pilot seat and brought down the canopy when the force field gave way and the runway became exposed to the vacuum. Alice felt the fighter move and start rolling, very slowly, towards the runway exit, as the pressure differential caused the air to whoosh out into the void, pushing the 302 with it. And since she left the sequence of doors—to the short corridor, and further to the staircase, the Glider Bay, and finally to the rest of the ship—open, there was quite a lot of air to do the pushing. The other fighter began moving next to her as well.

She quickly turned on the engine and steered the craft away from the other one, to avoid them bumping into each other. Then she flicked the switch to open a communication channel.

"Gagarin, I marked one of the 302s with a locator beacon and I'm sitting in the other one, when shields go off, you can beam both to the 302 bay directly."

"Roger that, Major," came the battlecruiser's captain's reply.

"I'm almost done," Hailey added quickly. "Just… one… push… and… done!" She announced.

"Get to a safe distance and let's blow 'em up," Mitchell ordered.

A few seconds passed in silence—with Alice still pushing on the stick to keep her fighter from rolling towards the exit, and observing the other F-302 moving away from her. She grimaced as the craft's wing collided with one of the launching rails, and a high-pitched screeching betrayed some damage was being done to it.

"I'm ready," Hailey confirmed then.

"Blow it up, Major," the colonel commanded. There was another moment of silence, and then the entire ship rocked again—and a few things happened in quick succession.

"Shield's down, Gagarin get us out of here, please!" Mitchell called.

Alice saw a blinding flash and heard a deafening sound; she reflexively closed her eyes and put her hands up, as if it could help in anything. Her fighter jolted back and sideways, its wing's metal scraping against something—the launching rail, most probably. She opened her eyes and looked to the runway exit—the edges of the opening were now jagged, a big chunk of hull missing, and she realized the other Ha'tak must have scored a direct hit. The only reason why she was still alive was because she had previously engaged the engine to keep from rolling out, and thus was still deep enough to avoid the blast; but the other 302 was a heap of twisted metal rushing through the hole into space; and, she realized, the air was once again starting to push her out, too.

It didn't matter, though. At that moment another flash of light enveloped her; she blinked and as she opened her eyes, she was back in the Gagarin's 302 bay.