Chapter 2

They needed a new plan. All the yammering in the briefing room drove Sam to her lab. Jack found her there and took her for a snack. He knew with an energy boost and no one making demands of her and perhaps a little distraction, her mind would be quieted enough to think clearly.

While all the scientists of the SGC were brainstorming in the briefing room, General Hammond was in his office contemplating a list of his men currently off world. So much concern was given to the Stargate, both inoperable and ready to explode, that little thought was left for the men and women currently on mission. He had lost a Stargate before but they had one waiting in the wings.

And it's not that he hadn't lost personnel before, whole teams in fact.

He has sent his people into the unknown. He has sent his people into grave danger, into battle. And consequently he has sent some of them to their death. Some he would never know what happened to them. He thought of a quote from Aeschylus in The Agamemnon:

over there, across the seas in Troy,

around the city walls, the hostile ground

swallows our beautiful young men,

now hidden in the earth they conquered.

But these teams Hammond would be forced to abandon. He was more than concerned, he was heartsick.

He had no way to contact them and inform them of the problems the SGC had incurred. He had no information as to their status. Were they injured or under fire? Did they need help or supplies?

With no operational Stargate their only resort was a ship from an ally. That is if they were able and willing.

Hammond hoped these teams would all retreat to the Alpha site. And from there, even if he had to beg, perhaps an ally could ferry them back to Earth. That, of course, was if they could solve this monumental problem and there was still an Earth to come home to.

One harebrained plan was to send an EM pulse through the Stargate, hopefully to cause a jump of the wormhole to another gate. This not only failed but injured Carter and halved the time they had to solve their problem. Thank you Rodney McKay.

The latest plan was courtesy of Sam Carter after a subtle hint from Jonas Quinn. They were going to deep six the Stargate and O'Neill was going to do it.

Only two people had ever flown in the X-302 and Jack O'Neill was not going to let Samantha Carter be the sacrificial lamb. Earth needed her, he felt he was disposable.

They had to hustle considering the time constraints. They had two hours to hoist the gate to the surface. Four hours to transport it to Peterson and load it onto a C-17. Then they had to fly it to Area 51 where preparations were being made. Meanwhile the X-302 was stripped down to accommodate the weight and structure of the Stargate as well as fitting this configuration onto a 747. They only had sixteen hours left to get this mess airworthy and off the ground.

O'Neill knew the logistics were mind boggling. Siler and his crew must have gone out with the gate. It was active, hot, ready to explode and possibly leaking radiation. These men were as brave as any front line team.

Jack needed some quiet to center his mind, to ready himself to succeed in this complicated mission. Next on his agenda was a trip to the infirmary to get topped up, yet again. He needed to be sharp, his mind completely focused and didn't want to be distracted by the pain in his knee.

To Doctor Frasier he said "Deja vu".

He left the infirmary, picked up a bag with his flight suit and limped alongside Carter to the elevator. She seemed a little nervous and that didn't help any.

"How's your knee?" She asked fumbling for a topic.

"If this plan doesn't work, that will be the last thing…It's gonna work, right?"

"Yes. Definitely." She didn't sound convinced.

Then she put in a good word for Jonas Quinn. That was similar to Teal'c's message in the mess. He didn't need that irritation or distraction right now.

"I wish I were going with you." She said.

All the things that could go wrong flashed through his mind and he said "No. Are you crazy? Anyway, I might need some technical advice."

"Good luck, Starflight." She wanted to reach out and touch him, as if she could infuse him with hope and strength and her love. It had to be touch because there were not enough words in all the languages of this world to express what she felt for this man.

He pounded on the up button of the balky elevator. He was off to save the world again and he needed to get away before he dropped his bag and hugged his Major until his anxiety passed.

On his flight to Area 51 as Doctor Frasier's magic began to take effect, he went over in his mind the major thing that could go wrong.

He supposed the worst was they couldn't get the rig off the ground. They must have thought of every contingency in this regard. And Siler and his crew were professional.

Then of course there was the possibility the wormhole wouldn't form and everyone on Earth would be screwed. But they did form a wormhole before so he was confident in that regard.

There was the possibility he couldn't get the gate to detach or even if he did, both X-302 and Stargate could be sucked into the hyperspace window. In that case Earth would be safe.

He only has to do one thing - get the gate far enough away from Earth. That was all that mattered.

He kept telling himself this was going to work, this mission would succeed. Everyone who had worked on it were seasoned professionals, all of whom he had the utmost trust in, especially Carter and Siler. Now he had to do his part.

He had to stop thinking of what could go wrong and re-familiarize himself with the control systems of the X-302.