Chapter 128: Spy Games Part 4

Stargate Command, CFB Goose Bay, Newfoundland, Canada, December 11th, 1999

Catra watched Jack tense. Then he sighed and said: "Figures. Anyone wanna bet that this isn't good news?"

She snorted. Of course, it wasn't going to be good news. Lenkova had messed up - messed up more, to be precise.

Before anyone else could say anything, the door was opened, and Campbell peered inside, straightening when he saw Jack. "Sir? Lieutenant Lenkova says she has to speak to you urgently."

"Send her in," Jack told him.

Catra looked the woman over when Lenkova entered. She wasn't carrying a weapon - at least, Catra couldn't spot one. And she looked nervous - even glancing over her shoulder as the door closed behind her. "Is this room safe?"

"It's safe and supposed to be soundproof," Jack said. With a glance at Catra, he added: "Though no soundproofing is ever perfect."

She grinned at him. Her ears were better than the insulation here. Having a bit of warning from Melog helped, of course - she had to listen carefully to catch anything.

Lenkova looked at the others in the room, frowning at Wilkinson and Paris.

Catra lazily waved at her and flashed her fangs. She tried not to show how tense she was. If Lenkova was feeling like this, things must be worse than Catra had expected. And since she had expected the worst…

"So, what's the emergency?" Jack asked.

Lenova straightened. "Sir, I have betrayed you."

Catra shifted on her seat. Lenkova was close enough for her to reach with one leap. And she wasn't armoured - a few swipes with Catra's claws, and she'd be dead.

Jack, though, didn't blink. Nor did he draw a weapon, unlike Sha're, who was aiming a zat straight at Lenkova.

"Where did you get that?" Catra heard Daniel whisper.

"Your Etherian friends," Sha're replied.

"So, how exactly did you betray me? Personally, not the thing about making contact with an unknown alien species," Jack said.

Lenkova straightened, assuming what they called 'parade rest' on Earth. "After I… informed you about my country's actions, I told Vlad… Sergeant Popov about it. About me informing you. He… disapproved."

Popov was the other Goa'uld survivor from Lenkova's team, Catra knew.

"Thought he'd join you, did you?" Jack asked in a soft voice.

Lenkova noded curtly. "Yes, sir. I was wrong."

"And now the Russians know we know." Jack sighed. "So much for surveillance."

Sam was typing furiously on her laptop. "Sergeant Popov met with Major Baburin on the training fields."

"Which we hadn't bugged," Jack said.

"You bugged the base?" For a moment, it seemed as if Lenkova's surprise replaced her guilt.

"Of course we did. Learned that from the KGB," Jack told her with a toothy grin that made the woman blush - probably with embarrassment; Catra wasn't sure. "Did he know about the bugs? Or suspect it? Or was he just trying to find the major right away?" He shrugged before anyone could say anything else. "Anyway, what makes you think this was a betrayal?"

"Because they'll try to kill you, General."

Oh. Catra's eyes widened. So did Jack's. Daniel had his mouth open but wasn't saying anything. Sam looked like she wished she had a death ray powered by the Heart of Etheria at hand. And Sha're looked even more annoyed with Lenkova.

"That would be a murder attempt!" Wilkinson blurted out, then blushed when everyone, Paris and Lenkova included, stared at him. "They wouldn't dare to attack an American general in an Alliance base, would they?" he added. "That would be insane!"

"So is trying to make a deal with an alien species behind the back of the rest of Earth," Jack said. "Didn't stop them."

"Wasn't that what we were trying to do before we met the Etherians?" Daniel asked. "Make a deal, I mean."

Jack frowned at him. "Not the point, Daniel!"

Despite the situation, Catra snickered.

"They won't openly attack you - they will try to assassinate you," Lenkova said.

"Make it look like an accident?" Jack sounded perfectly calm. "Or make it a demonstration?"

Catra snorted. "Everyone would know they did it," she said.

Jack pouted at her. "I made a lot of enemies!"

"Jack!" Daniel protested.

"What?"

"That's not something to be proud of!"

"It is if it's the right sort of enemies," Jack retorted.

Catra also snickered at that. Daniel pouted, and Sam sighed softly under her breath. The others - well, except for Sha're - looked confused. Especially Lenkova. "Do you not think this is a serious threat, General?" she asked.

"Oh, I do," Jack replied, flashing his teeth. "I very much do so."

Catra grinned. It looked like she'd be able to teach the bastards responsible for stranding her on Earth a lesson, and sooner than she had thought she would.

Good, Melog thought at her.

So, the Russians planned to assassinate him? Jack O'Neill bared his teeth. He wouldn't tempt Murphy by saying, 'Let them try!' but he couldn't help feeling almost glad about this - it meant that the Russians were desperate. Of course, they must have been desperate in the first place to attempt their takeover of Stargate Command. Or stupid, but the Russians Jack knew from the Cold War weren't stupid, and as far as he could tell, the old KGB spooks were calling quite a few shots in Russia. Probably literally as well.

Lenkova, though, still looked like he had just laughed in her face when she had been trying to warn him - and risking pretty much her life for it. Jack almost winced and forced himself to nod at her with a warm smile. "We're not going to underestimate them, Lieutenant. But we'll be ready for them."

"But…" Lenkova glanced at the others. "They have at least a dozen trained former KGB members here."

Including Lenkova. Jack didn't say that. Instead, he nodded. "Yes. But we've got advanced technology and magic. And we've got an edge in experience."

"Yes," Catra said, flashing her fangs. "They won't know what hit them."

Paris looked a little… spooked. Or embarrassed, Jack noted. "I'm not actually that experienced," she said.

"Neither are the sorceresses the Russians could use against us - if they have any," Catra told her.

"And we have Kira here as support," Daniel added.

"Ah." Paris looked reassured.

"Of course, Kira is guarding the Stargate," Catra said. "So, once we leave the base, you're our sorceress."

Paris didn't look reassured any more.

"You'll do fine," Wilkinson told her. But he didn't really sound convincing to Jack. And, judging by the frown on her face, Paris agreed with him.

"Why would we leave the base?" Daniel asked.

"Because once we've dealt with whatever assassins and spies they have here," Jack explained, "we'll go after the one in charge of this plot. And that's not Sidorov." Not unless the man was a much better actor than anyone else Jack knew. And a much better spy.

"You want to go to Russia?" Lenkova blurted out.

"Or China. Or both. Depends on what we find out," Jack said. He shrugged.

"You're planning to use yourself as bait, aren't you, sir?"

Jack almost winced at Carter's frown. Right, he should have expected that. "You heard the Lieutenant. They're coming after me, so I can hardly avoid being bait." He shrugged again.

Carter's scowl deepened. "You could move back to the Alliance base - or into orbit - until we finish our investigation."

While you risk your own life? Jack gave her a look, and she had the grace to blush slightly.

Catra snorted, and Daniel sighed. "You know Jack," he said, then blinked. "I mean… I didn't mean… Ah…"

Jack's laugh cut him off. "Anyway, we've got people gunning for me. And you can bet they have all the old tools of the KGB at hand."

"So, be wary of umbrellas," Wilkinson said with a forced grin.

"Those were actually Bulgarian," Jack told him. A spook should know better.

Wilkinson frowned. "I know."

"But we cannot assume that they are limited to those tools and methods," Carter pointed out, still focused on Jack. They might have received some advanced tools from the Eurondans."

Jack nodded. Officially, or through an under-the-table deal - or just from trade between a few grunts. Soldiers always made such deals.

"And they might have some alien relics that they didn't reveal," Daniel added. "They might not have used such to take over the base's computers, but that doesn't mean they have nothing useful in an assassination."

"If it's a tool known to the Goa'uld, I'll be able to spot it," Sha're said.

Right. She had been trapped as a helpless spectator in her own body when it was taken over by Apophis's queen - she probably had seen more assassination plans and attempts than everyone else in the base together, Jack reminded himself. She wasn't the young woman he had met during the trip to Abydos any more. He nodded again. "Good. Now, everyone, stay sharp - we'll continue our work, but we'll have to ensure we don't endanger others." Jack didn't think the Russians would shy away from collateral damage as long as it saved them from the consequences of their plots.

"We're continuously scanning for explosives, both conventional and advanced, sir," Carter said. "Also biological and chemical threats, though those scans are less dependable."

"Less dependable?" Daniel asked.

"Binary poisons are hard to detect. And bioweapons might be mistaken for normal organisms depending on how advanced they are," Carter explained.

Well, Jack hoped that the Russians were not as crazy as to use WMDs against a joint base on Canadian soil. That would… not end well at all for them no matter how it played out. "And that's why I am going to explore the area around the base," he said, "while you root out the last of the alien malware." He rolled his eyes at Daniel's open surprise - Carter hid hers much better - and added: "I do keep up with the times, Daniel."

"Of course!"

"Whatever!" Catra cut in. "Let's hash out who goes with whom. We have a general and a major to guard."

"Yep."

Mystacor, Etheria, December 11th, 1999 (Earth Time)

"...and yes, in theory, you could probably merge a 'gene scanner' with a magitech device that casts a healing spell and rig it so it uses input from the scanner to guide the spell. But you'd have to develop everything from the ground up - we don't have that kind of magitech device at the moment, nor do we know a healing spell that can affect genetics," Castaspella said.

Adora managed not to sigh out loud. They were still at it! Hours later! And she had thought Alliance meetings were bad!

"But magic can affect genetic conditions," Freyr said.

"She-Ra's magic, when channelling a planet's magic, can," Castaspella retorted. "That's a magic power, like a princess' power, not a spell - at least as far as we know. We haven't really analysed her power that deeply."

"We did come up with a variety of hypotheses, but we couldn't test any of them yet," the balding older man cut in with a frown aimed at Adora.

Adora met his frown. "We're in the middle of a war. Restoring a planet's magic just to run an experiment - on my power - has to wait."

"But it wouldn't take long at all!" the man all but whined. "And it would allow us to form a theory about this crucial aspect of Etherian magic! This could unleash a new age of research!"

"Unless your hypothesis ends up disproven," the oldest sorceress pointed out.

"Then we develop another hypothesis based on the new data!"

It was more than a little eerie how similar to Entrapta the man just sounded.

"And then we test it again," another sorceress chimed in.

Adora pressed her lips together so she wouldn't snap at the sorceresses that she wasn't at their beck and call. That would have been rude. But then, so were they.

"Are you honestly planning to replicate She-Ra's magic?" Glimmer asked with raised eyebrows.

"Duplicate the effects, at best," the man told her. "Replicating magic powers has proven impossible even in cases where the magic power in question seems to conform to the basic principles of spell-based magic since the underlying mechanics are completely different, but the effects often can be approximated with some research."

"A lot of research," the older sorceress added.

"Wait!" Adora refrained from raising her hand as if she were in a cadet training lesson. "If you can't duplicate my power because it's too different from spells, then why would you need to analyse it?"

"Oh, we wouldn't need to analyse it for the project," the man told her with a cheerful smile. "But analysing She-Ra's magic would greatly enhance our general knowledge and understanding of magic!"

Adora glanced around and saw that all sorceresses present were nodding in agreement with him. This was…

"Princesses aren't research subjects!" Glimmer snapped with a scowl.

"Is this a social norm, or are there factual reasons for this restriction?" Penegal asked. "Because it doesn't seem logical to restrict magic research in that manner."

"As I understand it, technically, princesses were research subjects of the Gate Builders - the First Ones - to start," Freyr added.

Once more, the sorceresses nodded, and Glimmer's scowl deepened. "Princesses are sovereigns. You ask for our help; you don't expect it unless you're a subject of the princess in question," she said.

"So… would you help us?" the man asked.

Castaspella frowned at him. "Drogan!"

That was his name! Adora made a mental note.

"What? I'm just asking."

"We shouldn't forget that She-Ra's magic isn't the result of the First Ones' experiments but predates their arrival," Bow pointed out. "There was a She-Ra on Etheria before there were other princesses."

"We don't know if there were no other princesses," the older sorceress disagreed. "There are no records in the First Ones' research base, but we know that there were sorceresses back then, so we cannot exclude the possibility that there were magic-users that used similar principles as today's princesses."

"That's your pet hypothesis. You don't have any proof for it," Drogan said.

"Just because you like to think that sorceresses were rulers back before the royal lines were established doesn't mean you can dismiss my theory without any evidence!"

"It's a hypothesis!"

"And it's irrelevant for the project we're discussing here," Castaspella said. "Creating a magitech device to stop and possibly reverse the genetic degradation of the Asgard doesn't need either." She nodded at Bow. "But you do make a good point. We do need to determine if the effects of She-Ra's healing magic can be duplicated by spells."

You're talking as if this is a done deal, Adora thought. But, seeing how the sorceresses and the Asgard acted, it probably was as good as a done deal. Everyone seemed enthusiastic, which was, of course, understandable in the case of the Asgard, but the sorceresses of Mystacor were also very invested in the idea. Even Bow.

She looked at Glimmer. Her friend probably had realised the same thing since she was frowning in the same way she usually did when Entrapta started talking a bit too enthusiastically about some new project.

Still, it was nice to see that the Asgard had finally found common ground with at least part of Etheria.

"This will be a long undertaking, though," Castaspella went on. "We're breaking entirely new ground here. It is unclear if this will result in success."

"We're aware of that," Freyr said. "But it's the best opportunity to save our species that we've discovered."

"And if it works, we won't have to deal with Loki's scheme," Thor added.

He sounded as if that was almost as important as saving the Asgard in the first place.

And that wasn't nice, in Adora's opinion.

She blinked. They would have to tell Loki about this, and she had no idea how he would react.

Stargate Command, CFB Goose Bay, Newfoundland, Canada, December 11th, 1999

The General was using himself as bait. Typical. Samantha Carter should have expected it. She had known he'd do it as soon as Lenkova had mentioned the threat of assassination, but the possibility had been clear from the moment she had discovered that Stargate Command had been hacked. It was his style. He might claim it was just leading from the front - she had to remember to call it 'Princess style' to his face next time he did so - but he was not merely leading from the front; he was deliberately exposing himself to draw fire. And he was doing it outside the base proper so that collateral damage would be minimal.

She hoped that the Russians weren't actually as insane as attempting to assassinate a US General, a high-ranking officer in the Alliance forces and personal friend of Etheria's most powerful leaders. Or that, if they were, they did so in a rushed and ill-prepared manner that was easily foiled, at least.

But she couldn't dwell on this - she had a job to do. She had to root out the remnants of the programs infesting the base's computers. They needed the Stargate operational again to transfer people to and from Etheria and other planets. Moving their only ship-mounted Stargate from its current position near the expected area of operations back to Earth would take weeks and significantly reduce the strategic mobility of the Alliance's 'princess squads' and command assets. And special forces, she added after a moment.

Fortunately, she wasn't doing this alone. Entrapta's help was limited since she could only work through remotes, but that didn't affect programming tasks that much. And they were making steady progress. Most peripherals were clear now, their memory scrubbed clean and reformatted or physically replaced where possible before the software was restored from clean backups. The main computer was a bit more complex, but it could be safely taken offline, and all memory purged as well. More or less safely.

The real problem was the security system. Taking it offline would render the base very vulnerable for the duration. And even isolating the different components and scrubbing them one by one would lower the efficiency of the security system as a whole since it was built with the synergy of all elements in mind. Until they had replaced all parts, they would have two partial security systems working simultaneously using different components - and they couldn't be connected or risk reinfection of the clean components. The resulting decrease in efficiency would be significant enough, in Sam's estimation, that a skilled and experienced operator might be able to exploit this to infiltrate critical areas of the base to conduct sabotage - or an assassination. Especially if they were already inside the base, like the Russian and Chinese agents posing as soldiers.

Of course, that would require those agents to know which subsystems were inoperational at any moment, and it wasn't as if Sam and Entrapta would announce their carefully planned schedule, but with the system already compromised, it was not impossible that the Russians and Chinese had the level of access this would require. Sam would only be able to tell after she could analyse all the programs on both the mirrored caches and the removed memory banks, at which point it would be moot one way or the other. And it wouldn't even take that to simply observe their progress and then estimate when they would be about halfway done - probably at the most vulnerable point of the entire operation.

To safely purge the security system, they had to install a temporary replacement. And that would take unacceptably long, as the General had made clear when Sam had mentioned it. Which left the only alternative - except gambling that the Russians and Chinese wouldn't risk doing exactly what Lenkova had warned the General about - trusting guards and other ad-hoc measures to take up the slack.

Sam didn't like it. But the General did. He was actually hoping that the Russians would attempt something - would try to assassinate him! - and expose themselves in the process.

She gritted her teeth at his foolish risk-taking - he was a general now, not a colonel any more, and no matter what Etherian princesses did, generals weren't supposed to 'lead from the front' like this. Hadn't been supposed to since the 19th century!

But she was wasting time, crucial time, again. She had a main computer to purge of all spyware. They had removed the memory banks completely already, but the caches and internal memory of the core remained. Sam would prefer to replace the entire core, but General Hammond had blanched at the cost of the replacement, and even the General had agreed.

Of course, he had agreed by stating that he trusted Sam to clean up the core, she reminded herself, smiling softly for a moment before frowning at her foolishness and focusing again on the task in front of her.

"Anyone want a sandwich?" Catra's voice interrupted her. "The tuna sandwiches are mine, but I got pastrami, cucumber, eggsalad and some 'croque monsieur', which is French for 'cheese sandwich' as far as I can tell."

Sam was about to ignore Cara - who should be guarding the General, not her, no matter what the General thought - but the woman held a plate entirely too close to Sam's face, and the scent of fresh bread and cheese hit her nose and made her stomach remind her that she hadn't eaten in a while.

Which Catra must have been aware of, judging by her smug smile when Sam grabbed a sandwich. Damn her.

"So, how's it going?" Catra asked, munching on a tuna sandwich as she sat down on the table next to Sam's temporary desk, tail and legs dangling.

"As projected," Sam replied.

"That bad, huh?" Catra grinned.

"It's going well," Entrapta chimed in, lagging again.

Catra nodded. "Jack's outside, 'inspecting' the snow still. I don't think…"

Sam looked up. Catra had gone tense, and her ears were twitching as she cocked her head to the door.

No, to Melog, who had gotten up from where they had been sprawled on the floor.

Something was up, and Sam was sure it wasn't anything good.

Danger.

Yeah, no shit, Catra thought, her ears twitching as she listened to the discussion outside the room between a Chinese scientist and the guards stationed there. The man was claiming that he needed access to the computer for his research, and he was acting as if he wasn't aware of the current tension between the Chinese and Russian contingents and the rest of Stargate Command, but his 'absent-minded, research-focused' manner felt very suspicious.

But he was alone and facing not just a fire team from SG-3 but a team of Jack's special forces as well, and she couldn't really hear anyone else nearby, so even if he was a spy or assassin, what was he planning to do when outnumbered like that? Against alert guards? Even for a princess, that could be tricky.

Hurting.

The man was hurting? "What?" Catra muttered under her breath.

"What's going on?" Sam asked.

"Huh?" Daniel looked up from the book he had been reading, but Sha're had already drawn her zat.

"Trouble?" Wilkinson asked, putting his hand on his gun, like Paris.

"Yes," Catra replied. "But not sure what kind. One Chinese 'scientist' is arguing with the soldiers outside, and he's hurting…" How? And why?

"What's going on?" Entrapta asked, lagging.

Catra ignored her friend - Entrapta's question was answered already.

Others hurting now!

Melog's urgent message came a moment before Catra heard the groans - and the falling bodies. What the… Her eyes widened while she was moving towards the door. "Poison!"

"Poison? We haven't cleared the sensors for…" Sam trailed off. "They must have taken them over! But my scanner should have detected it!"

"Poison gas?" Daniel blurted out.

"Prolly," Catra replied. None of the soldiers outside had managed to get a shot off, so that was some nasty gas.

She was at the door now. It should be airtight, but…

"Gas is more efficient than poisoning the food and drinks unless you are after a single target," Sha're said, joining her.

Catra heard a series of unfamiliar but identical noises outside. "He's shooting the soldiers," she snapped.

"Poison?" Entrapta's gasp was drowned out by the sound of an alarm going off inside the entire base - Sam's work, no doubt. Chemical attack warning, Catra realised.

"That means the door is next," Sha're said in a clipped voice. "And the gas is still outside."

"I shut down the climate controls, but if they sabotaged the system…" Sam trailed off. "The core rooms are compartmentalised, but the main part of the base…" She started typing on the console but drew back after a second. "They shut down the controls!"

"Would they attack the base with gas?" Daniel sounded shocked. "I mean, the entire base?"

"No sign of that," Sam reported, fingers flying over her keyboard.

No hurting outside.

With the alerts still sounding, it was hard to follow the action outside. Catra couldn't track the spy's steps any more. But she knew what he was doing. "Back away from the door!" she snapped, moving to the side.

A moment later, an explosion shattered the door, and Catra's ears rang. She had to stop herself from leaping through the smoking hole - there was gas outside. Coming inside.

Then she felt a breeze from behind - and heard Paris chanting shakily.

Magic wind.

Catra grinned, baring her fangs. That was quick thinking! She looked at Melog. "Do your thing!"

Melog cocked their head to the side for a moment, then Catra saw the room change, people vanishing, replaced by figures writhing on the floor as her friend's illusion took hold.

"Overpressure! Keep the gas out!" Entrapta yelled on the screen. "Reverse flow on the climate controls!"

Oh. Catra's friend hadn't noticed what was going on - this was bad.

But they couldn't stop. Catra loudly groaned, faking pain. The others chimed in, some more, some less convincing.

And then a figure stepped through the fading smoke, holding an unknown weapon in one hand and an alien cylinder in the other.

Sha're's zat dropped him before he could do anything, and Catra quickly secured him - holding her breath just in case. She couldn't hear any hissing noise, so there was no gas being released here, but better safe than sorry.

"No! Get up! Help! Hel… Oh!" Entrapta's frantic, desperate voice trailed off as Melog's illusion faded again.

"It was an illusion," Sam explained. "But the gas is real."

"And I'm not sure how much longer Paris can keep her magic breeze going," Wilkinson commented.

Catra glanced at the FBI sorceress. She looked like she was struggling. Severely struggling.

"We have to get out of here!" Catra yelled. But that would take them through the invisible poison cloud outside.

"I'm clearing the ventilation," Sam said. "The filters cannot be circumvented by remote controls. But I cannot predict if they will work on the gas used. My scanner didn't detect it."

Damn. Catra gritted her teeth. They were trapped inside the room. And Paris wouldn't last much longer.

"Can you build protection gear?" Entrapta asked.

"And I can't raise the General on the radio!" Sam added.

That was bad news, but Catra couldn't really afford to worry about Jack right now.

They had to find a way out of this death trap!

Wait! The assassin - he wasn't wearing a gas mask or a suit. He must have been immunised to the gas - partially, at least. He had been hurting. So, that wouldn't help them either. But… "Can you track the gas with your scanner?"

"I'll need to tweak it, but if I enhance it, it should be able to detect any particles." Sam was already fiddling with her scanner.

"Can you fix the door? With the desk? And using a sealant?" Entrapta suggested, still lagging.

"Done!" Sam announced. "Tracking unknown particles…" She drew hissing breath. "The entire hallway outside is filled with the gas. The other hallways are clear."

No choice. "Use your magic to push the gas into a corner in the hallway," Catra told Paris. "So we can get to the door."

"Can you do it?" Wilkinson asked.

She has to, Catra thought. Or they were done for.

Shakingly, Paris nodded.

Training Grounds, CFB Goose Bay, Newfoundland, Canada, December 11th, 1999

As soon as he heard the alert, Jack O'Neill reached for his gas mask, reflexes reaching back to boot camp taking over. Chemical Attack! Gas! Mask on!

But he wasn't carrying a gas mask! He wasn't even carrying his full field kit!

Before he could do more than curse, Isa almost slapped him in the face with a mask. "Sir!"

The sergeant had already masked up - as had Campbell. Jack had picked his people well.

So, instead of making a comment about always having known that a desk job would be his death, he slipped the mask on. "Thank you. I somehow doubt that this is a drill."

"Yes, sir." Isa wasn't looking at him. The huge woman had her machine gun shouldered and was scanning for threats together with her partner.

Jack quickly glanced around, but he couldn't spot anything or anyone, and his radio was quiet - jammed? He pulled his communicator out. "Carter?"

"Under attack, sir. Chemical."

Jack drew a sharp breath as he felt his stomach clench. Then rage filled him. If the Russians had gassed Carter - and the base - he'd nuke their country from orbit! Priest would do it, anyway - Catra was with Carter, and killing Her Holyness's Holy Consort or whatever would certainly earn divine retribution!

No! He was better than that. And personally hunting down everyone responsible for this would be far more satisfying, anyway. "Sitrep."

"We're temporarily containing the gas and are moving to a safe area of the base," Carter reported.

Jack let out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding. They were safe. Safeish.

"There were casualties, though. The guards assigned to us were shot."

Damn. Jack looked at his two guards - now the only survivors of the squad he had taken with him. "Gas attack inside the base. Someone shot Brandis and his team."

The masks hid their expressions, but he could see them tense.

"We've captured the attacker."

Only one attacker? But they had been using gas. Still… Jack would have to review procedures. "Keep me informed. We're returning to base."

"Yes, sir. Passing into a secure area now."

Good. Jack glanced at Isa and Campbell again. "We're going back. Stay sharp. If they attacked the others, they won't be planning to let us be." The Russians would have to be complete fools if they thought they could get away with killing Jack's team without taking him out as well. Of course, the Russians would have to be complete fools to believe they could get away with this attack at all.

This has the scent of a hasty, improvised operation, Jack thought as they started to walk back towards the main entrance to Stargate Command's compound. Someone must have panicked when we started unravelling their plot.

That was both good and bad news. They had to expect anything now, even insane attempts at taking the entire base. Jack froze for a moment. Would the Russians start a war over this? He didn't think so, but he wouldn't have thought they'd use a chemical weapon in Stargate Command, either. Hell, that was already risking a war. So was what he was about to do, but he didn't see any way around it.

Switching channels, he contacted the task force guarding Earth's orbit. "O'Neill here. We're under attack by unknown forces, suspected to be Russian and Chinese in origin. Prepare to repel any military attacks against Alliance countries."

"Yes, General!"

If Jack was wrong, he might have just sunk his career. And possibly started a war. Well, he could always emigrate to Etheria. There was bound to be a nice spot in the mountains somewhere there with room for a hut and a lake for fishing.

Snorting, he pushed the thought away and focused on the area ahead of them. Survival first, future later. The roads and the main paths were clear of snow, but the rest of the area was covered with it. That meant anyone trying to attack or ambush them was either limited in where they moved or had to deal with leaving tracks.

But the Russians had experience with that. Canada wasn't Siberia, but snow was snow. Mostly. And while they were inside the base area, few people were outside at this time, so an assassin wouldn't have to dodge - or deal with - too many people. There were patrols, of course, but they were focused on keeping threats away, not hunting down assassins inside the base. Still, an assassin wouldn't want to get too close to the perimeter. That limited the approaches they could take.

"Watch the small ridge ahead," Jack called out. "Good ambush spot."

"Yes, sir." Isa twisted her upper body a bit and aimed her machine gun at it.

Campbell moved to cover the other side, where a field was currently serving as a snow dumping spot. A decent spot to set up crossfire, but you'd have to climb the mound of snow and expose yourself. Or you'd have to burrow through it…

"Stop!" Jack snapped, dropping to the ground and quickly moving behind a heavy chest full of snow-clearing gear stashed nearby. Using binocs with a gas mask on was annoying but not impossible. And it beat discovering an ambush by walking into it.

He scanned the piled-up snow. This was a hasty attack - they wouldn't have had time to prepare much, if at all. And they would have been under pressure not to miss Jack and his team before they returned to base. So… He studied the upper parts of the mound, hoping that whoever was out there wasn't lining up a shot at him right now. The snow was riddled with sticks and darker stones, which didn't help. But Jack knew someone was there. He just had to find them.

There! That wasn't a stick - that was a barrel! AK-style!

Jack bared his teeth. "Sniper nest. Ten yards to the left from the top of the mound. Isa."

"Got it," Isa replied as she and Campbell switched sectors.

A moment later, she started firing, the machine gun's bursts ripping through the snow. Even densely packed, you needed a lot of snow to stop a heavy machine gun - and Isa was an excellent shot.

"Contact ridge!" Campbell yelled. He was already firing.

Jack ducked down and made a note to start carrying something heavier than a pistol. He still shot back at what looked like two people with assault rifles but didn't think he hit either. Not before Campbell and Isa, who swung her gun around, cut both down.

Almost literally, in her case. No need to check for survivors there.

By the time the first patrol - a squad from SG-3 - arrived a few minutes later, they had found the sniper in the mound as well. A burst from Isa had gone through his torso, showering the snow tunnel he had dug with blood and gore, but the head was intact enough to identify Sergeant Popov.

Damn. Lenkova would blame herself for this. Even if it wasn't her fault at all - she had done the right thing.

His communicator announced an incoming call. "O'Neill!" he snapped, looking around.

"Stand by for Her Divine Highness," a clone told him.

Oh. Of course, Priest would have informed Adora. And, of course, Adora would be calling him at once. From Etheria. With all the delay in communication that caused.

Damn.

"Jack." Adora sounded very tense. "What's going on? Catra said they were safe, but she had Russians to fight. And Priest is asking for permission to prepare an orbital bombardment."

Oh! "It's not like that!" Jack replied. "Russians and Chinese attacked us in Stargate Command, so I asked him to be ready to deal with attacks on the Alliance by either country. Just in case."

Seconds passed.

"Good. They have firing solutions ready for every Russian and Chinese military installation they know of."

Jack was pretty sure they had firing solutions for any known military installation on Earth, including the Alliance bases. But that was just standard procedure. "We're sorting this out here," he told her.

"Get the Stargate open again. I need to come to Earth as soon as possible."

Jack knew better than to argue that. And with Priest sounding so trigger-happy, the sooner they could get Adora to Earth, the better. "Will do."

He left the patrol to deal with the rest and hurried back to the base. He had to check up on his team. And the Russians and Chinese needed to be dealt with.

But when they reached the entrance to the base proper, he could see that things were already, if not in hand, then getting done. A squad of Chinese soldiers - disarmed - was led out of the base under armed guard.

"What's the status of the base?" Jack barked. Stargate Command wasn't under Alliance command, but he was the one with the direct line to the spaceships in orbit with the big honking spaceguns, and members of the Alliance had been killed with a chemical weapon, so he doubted that anyone would try to pull rank on him.

The French Lieutenant straightened. "We're securing the prisoners in a 'angar without direct access to the base, General," he replied in slightly accented English.

"Is the Stargate secure?" Jack asked. The Chinese looked… not mulish but stoic, despite not being dressed for the outside. He couldn't see any wounds or other signs of having fought amongst them or the French soldiers, either.

"Yes, General." The Lieutenant nodded. "The Chinese surrendered without a fight when General Haig ordered them to. The Russians… resisted and had to be subdued."

Jack nodded. He would have to ask Hammond for more information. "Carry on."

"Yes, General."

They stepped into the lift, and Jack used his communicator again. "Carter, we're coming down. Had a little scuffle with Russians trying to stop us. Status?"

"We're in the control centre, sir." Carter sounded relieved. "General Haig ordered the Russian and Chinese troops to lay down their arms and surrender. General Li complied. General Sidorov ordered his soldiers to resist before General Haig stunned him. Some are still holding out in their barracks."

"Not for long, I hope."

"I don't expect them to, sir. Catra and Melog are assisting Stargate Command with securing the base."

"Copy that." Good. It seemed things were under control. At least inside Stargate Command.

The lift arrived, and Isa moved in front of Jack before the doors opened. He didn't argue with her either. Never give an order you know won't be obeyed.

But the hallways were secure - a British squad was covering all doors.

Inside the control centre, Carter was busy at her computer, with Daniel and Sha're standing a bit to the side, whispering to each other, and Wilkinson hovering near Paris, who was sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall, looking like she had just ran a marathon or two.

That… "Don't tell me that they also attacked you with magic!" Jack blurted out.

"No, Jack," Daniel replied. "But Agent Paris had to use a lot of magic to contain the gas so we could pass through safely."

Paris nodded weakly. "It drained me more than expected."

"It was enough to save us all," Sha're said.

She had saved his team? Jack would have to make sure she joined his command. Or at least the Alliance.

But first, he reminded himself as he turned towards Hammond, he had to sort out this mess. Preferably without starting a war, but he wasn't particularly picky about that right now.