Chapter 9 - 2nd NID, Queen, Astronomy Plague
SGC General Hammond's office, Thursday, October 16th
"Thanks for keeping me up to date on the science teams' progress, Colonel," General Hammond said.
"It's all part of the job, Sir. But, are you sure about installing that thing?" O'Neill asked.
"Don't tell me you're having second thoughts, Colonel. You were very clear about the security implications," General Hammond dropped the file he was holding on his desk.
"All still entirely valid, I just don't like relying on something we didn't build ourselves," O'Neill said, pacing from the hallway door to the window looking at the briefing room and back. "Even with the best possible isolation from our systems."
"Well, thanks to your reports, I didn't get any pushback from base security over the proposed changes, meaning the captain's report was just the final piece of paperwork for the process," General Hammond said.
"Sirs?" Captain Carter knocked on the door.
"Come in, Captain," General Hammond said, motioning to the empty chairs in front of his desk.
"Good morning, Captain." O'Neill said, turning away from the briefing room window.
"Good morning, sir," Captain Carter returned the greeting.
"You're sure about that dialing thingy," O'Neill asked.
"It's fine, Sir. I've gone over all the programming," Carter replied.
"Just double checking," O'Neill held his hands up in surrender.
"I've reviewed your report too, Captain," General Hammond said, motioning to the file folder with Captain Carter's report laying open on his desk.
"Good news?" Carter asked.
"I've been keeping up to date with your progress on the device since you started working on it. So, yes," General Hammond said.
"So, I can get started installing it then?" Carter asked.
"We sent out the recall order last night, everyone except for SG-7 should be back, they requested to stay since their situation seemed relatively stable. So, as soon as Sergeant Siler says all the teams are in, you can proceed," General Hammond replied.
"Yes!" Captain Carter exclaimed, and then clapped her hands over her mouth in mortification.
General Hammond chuckled, "just check with Siler."
"Understood, sir," Captain Carter nodded, before leaving the room.
"Well, that's settled then," O'Neill said, returning to his seat in front of the desk.
"Speaking of, you're in charge of integrating the Jaffa you brought back and their paperwork, that's why I recalled the teams, I expect you to meet with them sometime today regarding team composition, maybe we can get an extra team out of this," General Hammond said.
"Understood, sir. What about the NID team that was supposed to be here this morning?" O'Neill asked.
"They should still be on schedule. I'm expecting them any minute now, stick around and you can help if they're like the last group. Now, you mentioned a contact you were going to visit regarding the NID," General Hammond said, only to be interrupted before he could really start asking for details.
"Sir, the NID team is here," Sergeant Walter Harriman knocked on the door.
"Speak of the devil," General Hammond said. "Please have them join us in the briefing room, Walter."
"Understood, sir," Sergeant Harriman motioned for the airman standing guard in the hall to show the team into the briefing room before closing the general's door.
"Remind me to ask you about that other topic later," General Hammond said, picking up Captain Carter's report and tucking it away in his secured filing cabinet.
-| A new line has appeared |-
SGC, Primary Briefing Room - October 14th, 1997 - Kahue's team
"Fancy digs you got here for deep space telemetry," Lieutenant Colonel Kahue said, shaking O'Neill's hand.
"Kahue, they made you a Colonel? And please, you know that's not what we do here," O'Neill replied.
"Lieutenant Colonel, please. I know, no such thing, Jack, just like you wouldn't know anything about Sloan sniffing out anything the NID is involved in," Kahue grinned.
"Colonels?" General Hammond interrupted the boisterous reunion.
"Ah, pardon our enthusiasm, sir, Lieutenant Colonel Kahue served a few missions with me back when he was a major," O'Neill said.
"General Hammond, my team, Captain Jason Byron, Second Lieutenant Marshall Perry, and Sergeant Matthew Bennett," Lieutenant Colonel Orrin Kahue introduced his team.
"I'd be happier to meet you under different circumstances, Colonel," General Hammond said.
"If I may speak freely, sir. I'm not entirely a hundred percent on why my team was sent, sir. We're specialized for counter terrorism and normally get deployed to other areas of the world. Not America's backyard," the major said.
"You can trust me when I say that we aren't just dealing with the backyard," General Hammond said dryly.
"Well, if someone hadn't shredded over half the reading materials we should've gotten regarding this mission," Second Lieutenant Perry muttered.
"Not my fault, I keep telling you," Sergeant Bennett sing-songed back.
"Shut it." Captain Byron hissed.
"None of us would've put the contact poison on that half of the paperwork anyway," Sergeant Bennett said.
"Contact poison?" General Hammond said, alarmed, to instant silence from the team.
"We, that is to say, can't actually prove the existence of any theoretical contact poison. Of course, everyone else back at the base suddenly deciding to wear gloves while handling paperwork before we left is surely just an affectation and not a statement of intent," Lieutenant Colonel Kahue said.
"The more I learn about things," General Hammond muttered with a heavy breath. "How can we help clarify?"
"Well, sir, we understand that a team already came through before us, unfortunately we don't... uh... we didn't get to see any of the footage we know exists, not to mention a briefing on what exactly we're doing here 'cause apparently we're on someone's shit list and didn't get a proper briefing aside from being told to sign the largest pile of NDAs we've seen yet," Lieutenant Colonel Kahue said. "Quite impressive, given the size of the previous stack I had to sign."
"I'm sure we can bring you up to speed with minimal tears," General Hammond adjusted his approach, pleasantly surprised to not have another batch of idiots; he'd been dreading the possibility ever since the heads up call from the pentagon alerted him to the incoming team.
"General, you've got a call on the pentagon line," Sergeant Harriman interrupted the briefing.
"Thank you, Walter, I'll take it in my office. Lieutenant Colonel, I'll leave you and your team in Colonel O'Neill's capable hands. O'neill I'll trust your judgement on how to bring them up to speed," General Hammond said before disappearing through the door to his office.
"Where to start," O'Neill said, standing up and walking around the room to the window with the blast shield.
"Why do I get the feeling you're about to rip the rug out from under us?" Kahue asked.
"Oh, wait till you see this," O'Neill said and pressed the switch to raise the blast shield blocking the window overlooking the stargate.
"What the devil is that, Jack," Kahue asked, stepping towards the window with the rest of his team as they got their first view of the stargate.
"That, lieutenant colonel, is a stargate. I suppose we should stop by Daniel's office, for his lecture on what we do around here, but first the control room."
-| A new line has appeared |-
SGC General's Office, Thursday, October 16th
General George Hammond held the red phone up to his ear while he watched O'Neill smirking at Kahue and the rest of the surprisingly sane team through the window between his office and the briefing room.
"You certainly kicked over one hell of an anthill, George," General William Taft said.
"I can't say that wasn't expected, Bill," General Hammond replied.
"I wouldn't say it's unwelcome either. It got me read-in on what you're doing over there. Deep space telemetry, George? Is that the best we could come up with? There's gonna be consequences. But, things needed shaking-up anyway," General Taft said.
"I'm sure you had more reason to call me than to just pat me on the back for giving you more work," General Hammond probed, getting a chuckle in reply.
"Perceptive as ever, eh George? You're right though. I intercepted this report from one of our less conformist air force officers, based on her record I'm thinking someone is trying to tank her career. She's a remarkably level headed officer, if you don't take her for the program I'm going to see if I can get her transferred to one of my projects," General Taft meandered off topic a bit.
"You're stalling, send me her file and get back to the topic," General Hammond said and cleared his throat a little.
"You're right, I've got what looks like a possible foothold situation out of Soto Cano base: five foot ten female of indeterminate ethnicity with dark red hair, going by the name of Hathor. Eyes that glow, strange voice, megalomania, and something of a curveball for you, the ability to command men around her," General Taft rattled off.
General Hammond involuntarily inhaled sharply.
"Fits the criteria for one of your what was the term again, oh yes, Goa'uld," General Taft said.
"What?" General Hammond asked.
"You heard me, George, it's a foothold situation; our girl nearly got the drop on this Hathor character, seems she was a bit lacking in the feminine charms department, which is the only reason we managed to get ahead of what was going on. Try to keep up with me George," Taft repeated.
"So she's contained then? Do you need me to send SG1?" General Hammond asked.
"No to both," General Taft sighed. "The Soto Cano base was compromised late last night, with the majority of the base's women being detained, except for our girl who wrote me that report. Seems this Hathor person issued some instructions to have a crate shipped to you, well, your base, and then disappeared. The affected men followed her instructions to the letter before waking up with very muddled or no memories of the event once the crate was on its way. I'm jumping on an express flight straight to you with everything I managed to collect about this, should be there in about five hours."
-| A new line has appeared |-
SGC, Stargate Operations Control Room
Colonel O'Neill led Kahue's team down the spiral staircase into the operations center. They emerged into a mess of activity as the controls and the long console against the window looking into the control room was mid-disassembly by Captain Carter's team.
"Castleman, get me that socket wrench," Carter's voice came from under the control desk.
"Here you go," Lieutenant Castleman handed her the requested item. The engineering team had made short work of stripping the place bare with only one control station left untouched at the far end of the desk, where the computer screen was open to the iris control program reflecting the status of the iris they could see through the window currently closed tight.
"I think that does it," Carter said, emerging from beneath the desk.
There was a moment when Carter spotted the new arrivals looking at them in confusion as she didn't recognize them.
"Already getting a head start on things, Captain?" O'Neill raised an eyebrow.
"Didn't see a point in waiting since everyone is back on base, sir," Carter said. "Though I'd appreciate not having to interrupt the work to play tour guide."
"No need Captain, I've got the tour guide part down. I should make introductions," O'Neill said and quickly ran through proper introductions in both directions.
"Ah, Captain Carter?" Sergeant Bennett asked.
"That's me," Carter said.
"I seem to have something here for you, give me a moment," Matthew Bennett dropped his pack and fished out a long cardboard box that he handed over.
Captain Carter was taken aback by the sudden package and looked it over before grinning, "How did you? When did you..."
"Long story, but we had our own requisition from that manufacturer to pick up, and yours bumped ours. But since we were headed here we offered to bring it. If you don't mind though, we'd like to know what it is?" Sergeant Bennett asked.
"Ah, it's for our new equipment. Some special cables and mounting brackets that I didn't have the materials to make here. I placed that special order a few days ago, hoping they'd be here on time, since that manufacturer is only authorized to work with a specific courier out of our list of cleared couriers and they're notorious for being late or losing packages entirely," Carter said, and opened the box to verify the contents before handing it off to Sergeant Siler. "I was starting to think we'd need to macgyver some temporary replacements for now and order them through a slower more reliable partner to fix it later."
"Yeah, that's why we pick up our orders from them directly, I think that courier is some senator's pet pork project," Sergeant Bennett said.
"Regardless of the circumstances, thank you, you've made my day, but it's time for you all to get out of here so we can finish our work," Carter said, motioning for the door.
"Right, as you were, Carter. Let's go see Daniel now," O'Neill led the way down the steps from the control room into the corridor of level 28. "Say, how long do you guys have?"
"We're running a little early. So, I'd say we have a few days before our superiors expect you guys to report our ignoble deaths," Lieutenant Colonel Kahue said after a moment's thought.
"And you're sure you don't want to transfer?" O'Neill shuddered.
-| A new line has appeared |-
O'Neill kept Daniel mostly on track; so the new team didn't spend too much time having their ears filled with side tangents while being told about the existence of aliens before moving onto the video they'd requested. Daniel had a copy that he was planning on editing together with some of his other materials for a series of videos so he didn't have to keep making the speech in person.
"They did what?" Lieutenant Colonel Orrin Kahue asked incredulously. Colonel Makepeace's video of the other team sent by the NID was eye opening for the team.
"Oh, yes, they did that and more," Jack said pointing to the frozen image of the MULE being unloaded in the gate room.
"Why haven't we requested a transfer yet, sir," Second Lieutenant Perry asked.
"That'd be because you guys refused to abandon Harry to that den of vipers," Sergeant Bennett said.
"I'm starting to regret that decision," Lieutenant Colonel Kahue muttered.
"Why are we doing this again?" Captain Byron asked.
"Cause you all agreed the colonel was sounding more than a little fanatical last time he spoke to us," Lieutenant Colonel Kahue said.
The exchange between team members didn't go unnoticed by O'Neill and Daniel.
"Unfortunately, we do have to actually make an attempt now that we're here," Kahue said, pulling everyone back to the topic at hand.
"We could do with someone showing us the ropes," Captain Byron said.
"Oh?" Colonel O'Neill asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure it's normal for you guys to go through that ring on a regular basis, but our usual travel methods are more conventional; you know, planes, boats, cars, and trucks, that sort of thing," the second lieutenant said.
"I feel I should mention, General Hammond has full authority from the joint chiefs and the president to poach anyone sent here," O'Neill said and started to pack everything up.
"I can get all that," Daniel told him, looking up from the book he'd been working on.
"Thanks Danny," O'Neill said, leaving the office.
The other team shared some silent communication before following him out the door.
"We'll think about it," Kahue said as they caught up with him in the hall.
"Huh, I'm supposed to be meeting with the other team leaders in a few minutes. We recently rescued some more Jaffa that weren't happy with their situation like Teal'c, and the plan is to shuffle the teams a bit and add a Jaffa team member to some of the teams like Teal'c for SG1, maybe make a fourth team out of the extra members. If you guys don't mind splitting up we can have you each join one of the teams on a mission," O'Neill offered.
"Sure," Kahue replied.
"I think the next one we had planned was this neat observatory on a little planet called Hanka, it's a binary system with one blackhole orbiting the other star. If any of you are interested in that sort of thing you could tag along with us," O'Neill said.
"Dibs," Kahue said.
"Not even going to wait to learn what other missions are planned for the other teams?" O'Neill asked, jokingly.
-| A new line has appeared |-
SGC General Hammond's Office
"Sir, that person you're expecting from the pentagon is here," Sergeant Harriman said.
"Well, let him in," General Hammond said.
"You were never this big of a trouble magnet when we were lieutenants," General William Taft said.
"What the devil is going on Bill?" General Hammond asked.
"A mess," the visiting general replied and opened the folder he'd brought with him. "This is our suspected Goa'uld, Hathor, and the crate she instructed the Soto Cano base to ship up here."
General Hammond examined the photographs in alarm.
"My thoughts exactly. At least I've got some good news though. We managed to divert the crate to Sheppard Air Force Base before it'll move on. That will give us a brief window to examine things before it arrives," Taft said.
"Too bad we can't stop it there," General Hammond said with a sigh. "But Hathor probably isn't safe elsewhere and we have contacts that might be able to help detain her permanently."
-| A new line has appeared |-
SGC Daniel's office
"General Hammond's looking for you," Sergeant Walter Harriman poked his head into Daniel's office.
"Oh? What's going on?" Daniel said, and carefully put the paper with translations he was working on into the reference book and both onto the desk next to his computer monitor.
"No idea, something to do with a visitor from the pentagon," Sergeant Harriman replied and left the office.
"Huh," Daniel said and finished putting the things Jack had left out away.
-| A new line has appeared |-
SGC - Stargate Operations Control Room
"Testing stargate control system," Captain Carter said into the microphone, visually confirming that everyone in the gate room heard her.
Sergeant Siler dutifully pressed his palm on the scanner and tapped a button on his keyboard, the program on his screen updated to show he'd requested that the iris open and sent the command to the dungeon supplied dialing computer installed flush with the countertop next to the scanner.
Everyone watched the iris retract into the pocket in the gate, and as soon as the iris was fully open the various screens in the room showing the stargate reacted to the dialing computer reporting success and updated to show that the iris had opened.
"Dial the test site," Carter said.
Sergeant Siler navigated through the program to the address book and selected the test site address, obviously taking a moment to confirm he had the correct address selected as was procedure before pressing the dial button. The program fed the glyphs to the dialing console and the stargate seamlessly connected.
"Walter's not going to be happy, he likes saying the chevrons," Siler said.
"Sergeant Harriman can still say the chevrons if he wants to use manual mode," Captain Carter replied.
Siler shrugged, "Ready to test the Iris redirect?"
"Gotta do it sometime," Captain Carter replied, before leaning over to speak more directly into the still-active microphone. "You can go through, remember the iris will be closed when you dial back so do not come through. Just throw the test ball and wait."
The airman nodded and took a running jump through the stargate. A moment later it shut down.
"Closing the iris," Carter announced, and Siler hit the button.
A moment later the stargate connected with the iris closed and the control program on the screen flashed a red alert about the open connection with a closed iris.
"Ready to proceed?" Airman Fredericks asked over the radio.
"Just the test ball Airman, we're not risking you on this thing," Carter replied.
"Test ball has been sent," Airman Fredricks said a moment later over the radio. There was no thump against the iris as might normally be expected and a second or too later the gate disconnected before dialing out again on its own.
"Captain?" Airman Fredericks said a moment later over the radio before the gate disconnected.
There was a pause and then they got another dial in.
"It's Airman Frederick's GDO," Siler announced, the screen in front of him showing a warning that automatic iris control was disabled.
"Open the iris," Carter said, and Siler opened it. A moment later, Airman Fredericks showed up with the test ball in his hand. The engineering team that had been working on getting everything connected cheered.
-| A new line has appeared |-
SGC General Hammond's office
"Apparently, this is Hathor," General Taft repeated the bit of his briefing he'd already gone through with General Hammond, showing the photograph of the woman with striking red hair to Daniel. "We've backtracked her path from the Soto Cano base to an archaeological dig in Honduras."
Taft pulled out a second picture that had Daniel Jackson drawing in a breath, "She compromised Soto Cano base last night and arranged for this item to be packed and shipped here."
"That's one of those box things that Ra used to revive us back on Abydos, a Goa'uld sarcophagus," Daniel said.
"I had a feeling," General Taft said. "Luckily, with the advanced warning from Diana Eak, that level headed officer I mentioned, we diverted the crate to Sheppard Air Force Base."
"She's probably in the sarcophagus in stasis mode," Daniel speculated.
"That makes some sense," General Taft said.
"Maybe, can you contact Sheppard Air Force Base and have them add some of the heavy duty straps around the sarcophagus to keep it closed?" Daniel asked.
"That's a good idea. The problem is that Hathor has that ability to subvert those men in close proximity to her," General Taft said, pondering the picture.
"She likely set it on a timer of some sort, the diversion to Sheppard Air Force Base should arrive well before the timer expires so there's a window there where you can have a team of ladies verify the sarcophagus is still closed before moving in," Daniel said thoughtfully.
"Sounds like a plan, just in case though, I'm recommending that we clear as many of the men from the base as possible. I took the liberty of grabbing the personnel files from Peterson for anyone with a high enough clearance that can be transferred here on short notice."
"I'll let Colonel O'Neill know to speed up the deployment of the teams," General Hammond said, accepting the stack of personnel files.
-| A new line has appeared |-
SGC - Messhall
"Alright listen up everyone. Captain Carter says the new dialing computer has an advanced drift correction algorithm; that means we're no longer waiting for the blinky rocks we tricked into thinking about numbers real hard to figure out coordinate corrections," O'Neill announced to the room in general. The mess hall had been temporarily turned into a meeting room for all the SG teams.
"As part of the test, we're deploying basically everyone. So listen up as these are the assignments. SG-2 you're going to P3X - 1279. SG-3 and SG-9 you're going to P3X - 794 also known as Cimmeria to check up on them. SG-4 you're going to P3X - 866, beautiful place, I'm jealous, really. SG-5, SG-6, and SG-8 you're being held in reserve here but if nothing happens in the next 12 hours you'll be deployed to P3X - 513 to check up on the Avnil. Any questions?"
"Yeah, what the devil's going on?" Colonel Barnes of SG-6 asked.
"No idea, but please keep in mind the Jaffa and our visiting sane NID team members when you're out there," O'Neill said to a chuckle at the mention of sane and NID in the same sentence.
"What about SG-1?"
"SG-1 will be joining SG-7 already on site, for the astronomy mission on Hanka."
"What about the MALPs?" Major Howe of SG-4 asked.
"Captain Carter already sent out the MALPs for the new addresses while testing the new dialing computer and didn't see anything discouraging so grab your briefing packets with the planet addresses and what information we've gathered. If you come across a situation and SG-5, 6, and 8 have already been dispatched then reach out to one of the other teams directly with the address for that planet, cheat sheets will be handed out to team leaders before you depart. Check in every six hours and pack for an overnight stay just in case. SG-4 you're going first, and before anyone asks why that's just the order Carter said we're going in."
There was grumbling and scattered movement of chairs as the SG teams chatted amongst themselves while SG-4, and their extra members Second Lieutenant Marshall Barrett and the Jaffa Ha'kiera, left the room for the stargate room to start their mission.
-| A new line has appeared |-
SGC - Stargate operations, gateroom
After a few minutes and more teams leaving, it was SG-1's turn, Lieutenant Colonel Kahue and the young Jaffa warrior Brennad joining them in the gate room.
"Dial it up," O'Neill waved to the control room.
"PX8 - 987, Hanka, encoded, and locked," Sergeant Harriman said over the intercom.
"Snazzy," O'Neill made a low whistle, as the gate smoothly connected without manually working through the chevrons for dialing.
"I'm just not used to it not going through the symbols," Sergeant Harriman said to Sergeant Siler in the control room.
"Impressive," Kahue said, leaning back reflexively even though he was nowhere near the danger zone for the splash of the unstable vortex from the connection process.
"So, what exactly are we going to see after this eclipse begins? I mean, it is black, and it is a hole…" Daniel asked.
"I don't know Daniel, maybe it'll be a black hole," O'Neill replied as he led the way up the ramp.
Daniel shot a dirty look at the colonel's back while Kahue snickered, "Okay. Let me put that a different way."
"No Daniel, you're right. You can't exactly see it, not the singularity itself. It's so massive, not even light can escape it. But, during the totality phase of the eclipse, you should be able to see matter spiraling towards it," Carter interrupted with a laugh.
"That'd be the accretion disk," O'Neill said.
"I guess it's easy enough to understand why the local population would be afraid of something like this…" Daniel trailed off and turned towards O'Neill as what he'd said sunk in. "What did you just say?"
"He said, the accretion disk," Kahue interjected.
"You didn't think the Colonel had a telescope on his roof just to look at the neighbors, did you?" Carter asked.
"What? It's just an astronomical term. And, not initially," O'Neill wheedled. "Besides, binoculars are better for that."
O'Neill, and Teal'c stepped into the puddle.
"Oh, Captain," Kahue stopped Carter just before she went through, and reached over pulling the earth home symbol patch off her shoulder and rotating it before putting it back on.
"What was that for?" Carter asked.
"You had the patch upside down," Kahue shrugged.
Carter flipped the patch back before she leaned over and whispered, "We're trying to see how long it takes for O'Neill to notice, but thanks."
-| A new line has appeared |-
PX8 - 987 - Hanka - Stargate
"I still do not understand this black hole," Teal'c said as they exited the stargate on PX8 dash 978
"Well a black hole is..." O'Neill paused mouth open, "is really..." he fumbled around for words, "a big thing. It's uh..." he gestured with his hands, "basically it's a..." he continued making cupping motions, "massive..." not having any other words he continued with, "hole, ok?"
"I see..." Teal'c deadpanned.
"Ah, and... what happens is, everything gets sucked into it. Even light. That's why we can't see it. It just gets sucked in..." O'Neill continued, while Kahue chuckled in the background.
"Thank you," Teal'c said, deciding to let O'Neill off the hook in explaining things.
"Sure. Alright, I know we're a little early, but SG-7 still should've had someone out here to greet us," Colonel O'Neill said, clicking his radio a few times. "Carter, you did call to let them know we were coming right?"
"I spoke to Major Smith this morning before we took the gate offline," Captain Carter said.
O'Neill's radio suddenly crackled, and the team could hear coughing and pained groans as someone tried to say something but only managed a pained, "colonel," and then the radio was silent again.
"What the?" O'Neill said, holding up a hand to signal they should all stop.
"O'Neill," Teal'c said and pointed to the basket lying on the path. There was a low groan as one of the villagers raised a hand covered in sores.
"Right, MOPP-4, MOPP-4, everyone," O'Neill said, pulling his pack around to retrieve the emergency CBRN mask and gloves out of the storage pouch. Carter, Daniel, and Kahue copied him.
"The pain must be debilitating," Carter said, moving to the villager once she had her mask and gloves on. "Hold still, we're here to help."
"Carter, I'm calling in reinforcements, if there's one there's more," O'Neill said, and lifted the remote. He worked his way through the menu to the gate controls where he dialed earth.
-| A new line has appeared |-
SGC - Gateroom
Captain Doctor Fraiser reached up to move a strand of hair out of her face, her other hand was directing the medical pod through the entrance to the gate room. She stumbled a bit when the pod came to a halt unexpectedly and looked up at SG-6, SG-8, and her staff getting ready with their bright yellow isolation suits. And a mule with the decontamination gear.
"Hey doc, better finish suiting up," Specialist Sean Maxwell, already fully suited up in the isolation gear, reached out and grabbed the other handle of the medical pod. The chemical warfare specialist had been poached from the NID's first attempt to send a team through to the dungeon planet earlier in the month.
"Careful," Fraiser started as she grabbed her helmet from the medical pod.
"I got it," Maxwell grinned from behind the transparent plastic covering his face. Doctor Fraiser grumbled incoherently under her breath and moved to the front of the group.
"Alright people, keep your isolation gear on at all times. SG-1 didn't give an indication as to the nature of the event on PX8-987, but it appears to be highly contagious with a rapid gestation," Fraiser said. "Once you clear the gate, you will head directly for the observatory building and begin work decontaminating the structure. It's our best option for a FOB to assist with this. Maxwell, since that thing is behaving for you, you're in charge of getting the medical pod to a suitable spot in the observatory."
Sean Maxwell nodded and rocked the medical pod forward and backward pretending he was holding the handles of a bike.
"Everyone check the isolation seals on the person next to you, and then we can go," Fraiser said.
-| A new line has appeared |-
PX8 - 987 - Hanka - Observatory
"Orrin! I heard you were here. Take this would you?" Specialist Maxwell called out and handed the dumbfounded lieutenant colonel one of the equipment bags from the MULE they'd brought to carry all the gear.
"Sean? What the devil are you doing here?" Lieutenant Colonel Orrin Kahue accepted the bag.
"The best work I've ever done in my life, for once," the CBRN Specialist replied.
"Where am I taking this?" the lieutenant colonel asked.
"I think we're setting up triage in the observatory, think you can handle being my extra hands? I trust you to not make any stupid mistakes seeing how I'm the one that got you your B.W. certifications," Maxwell grinned.
"Mind answering some questions about the SGC while I help?" Kahue asked.
"Only if you return the favor and tell me all the details I'm missing after transfering," Maxwell grinned right back.
-| A new line has appeared |-
PX8 - 987 - Hanka - Observatory Triage Center
The building had been sanitized to within an inch of its life and there was now a decontamination booth that everyone had to go through when moving from outside to inside.
"How many are affected," Fraiser asked, her yellow isolation helmet still on.
"Based on our estimate of the size of the village, it's everyone. Roughly a thousand people," Carter said, now in her own isolation suit. They didn't think SG-1 had caught whatever bug this was, having immediately enacted MOPP-4 protocols at the first sign of the illness, but better safe than sorry.
"We've located all of SG-7, they're all in bad shape," O'Neill said, stepping out of the decontamination shower.
"I just put Major Smith into the medical pod," Fraiser said, motioning to the makeshift isolation room where Sean Maxwell had parked the medical pod. The golden glow of the isolation field could be seen through the transparent isolation curtain.
"I wondered what that alert was about," O'Neill said, showing the screen of the Ancient remote control.
"Colonel O'Neill, the stargate just activated," Lieutenant Fischer announced over the radio.
"Say again," O'Neill said into the radio, making an about face back to the decon airlock.
"Stargate is active, no radio from the SGC, there's someone coming through now. I think they might be the Nox, sir. Maybe you should be the one to greet them?" Lieutenant Fischer replied.
"I've got to go handle this," O'Neill said to Fraiser and the team.
"By all means go," Fraiser waved him on.
"Whatever you do, do not aim at them. I'll be right there," O'Neill replied to Fischer over the radio.
"Sir, those don't look like typical weapons, but I'm pretty sure the Nox brought along their equivalent of a heavy combat team," Fischer sounded a little panicked.
"Don't make me repeat myself, lieutenant, just hang tight and I'll be there shortly," O'Neill said again.
-| A new line has appeared |-
PX8 - 987 - Hanka - Stargate
"A full combat team, guys?" O'Neill said as he strolled toward the assembled unexpected visitors. There was a twitch like they were about to raise their weapons until they recognized him. "Woah, and I thought seeing the weapons the other day was a surprise."
"Engineered plagues are one of the few situations where we grudgingly authorize lethal force," the Nox at the head of the group replied.
"So wait, the last team was using non-lethal weapons?" O'Neill asked.
"That is correct," the leader of the team replied again.
"Are those medical pods?" O'Neill asked, spotting the slightly older looking but still recognizable medical devices hovering behind the Nox.
"Yes, if you would show us to the triage area we can set them up with our portable power source and get to work.
Just then the stargate activated again, and a new figure in an all-concealing silvery suit that had layers like robes stepped through. About the only thing he could determine for sure was that they should probably have a humanoid shape under that suit.
The silvery figure looked around at the assembled group and identified the leader talking with O'Neill.
"Greetings honored elder, I could have sworn that as a plague alert situation you'd arrive with appropriate protective equipment," the silvery figure stated, their voice distorted by the suit's isolation systems.
"We are not as unprotected as we may first appear, Representative of the Furling Assembly," The Nox Elder reached over and lightly touched a subordinate on the shoulder where a visible flash of light revealed he had not made contact.
"Ah, isolation fields, barely acceptable, you recall that they are flawed and did not protect the eldest. A physical barrier is always preferred. You may call me Kesh." Kesh the furling stated.
"You may call me Obenne," Obenne the Nox elder replied.
"Colonel Jack O'Neill, but you can call me O'Neill," O'Neill said, getting looks from the Furling and Nox, like he'd spoken out of turn but the former was a little harder to tell given the silvery robes covering them concealed everything.
"We are wasting enough time, let's be on with this," Obenne said motioning to the medical pods.
"Right follow me," O'Neill said.
-| A new line has appeared |-
PX8-987 - Hanka - Observatory Triage Center
Colonel O'Neill led the Nox medical team through the decontamination shower and into the makeshift infirmary and triage center they'd set up inside the existing Observatory structure. Frowning a little at the looks they were giving the equipment. But pleasantly surprised that the silver suited Furling seemed to be happy with what they were seeing given their nod of appreciation.
"Your facility is a little outdated but serviceable and well within acceptable standards," Kesh's distorted voice broke the silence.
"Colonel, where is their isolation gear?" Fraiser asked as soon as she looked up and spotted the newcomers.
O'Neill gave a pointed look to Obenne, the Nox representative of the group.
"We are suitably geared for this type of mission," Obenne said, demonstrating the isolation field again. The furling chortled at the comment.
"That's all well, however, as this is my Triage Center, I will not accept the risk of staff that are only protected by fields that could fail or lose power or be bypassed at any moment by unforeseen events," Doctor Fraiser said standing up. She then pointed to the rack full of isolation suits. "If you're planning on assisting here you may wear one of the isolation suits we've brought along or go retrieve something a little more physical from your own stores. You will not be entering my triage center otherwise."
"Bah, even this young one questions the wisdom of only using isolation fields," Kesh said when they finally regained control of themselves.
Half the Nox present shrugged and grabbed one of the yellow isolation suits from the rack and started figuring out how to wear them. Of the other half a few of them looked thoughtful before examining the woody vine that was wrapping around their arms, while the remainder, stony faced and stubborn, turned and left.
-| A new line has appeared |-
"Have a nice chat?" O'Neill asked, during a lull in the activity when Kahue was no longer being run into the ground helping Sean.
"Your organization.. It infected him," Kahue chuckled, showing that he wasn't trying to be mean with the comment.
O'Neill looked around the room and back to the lieutenant colonel, "how so?"
"He seems to think that this is a reasonably straightforward day," Kahue said.
"Let me ask you something; what's your favorite aircraft," O'Neill stopped walking and turned to Kahue waiting for his answer.
"Easy, the F-16 Fighting Falcon," Kahue said without missing a beat.
"You enjoy flying it right?" O'Neill asked.
"Right," Kahue agreed.
"What is your opinion of people that don't like flying?" O'Neill asked.
"Insanity, who doesn't like flying?" Kahue asked.
"Well, getting to use that stargate is like flying, lieutenant colonel, even the best planes take a few trips to get used to, but if you can't say you love it before your mission at the SGC is over, I wash my hands of you." O'Neill replied.
"Not sure if it's growing on me yet to be honest," Kahue muttered.
The day isn't over yet," O'Neill replied and clapped Kahue on the shoulder, before turning back to the path.
- A new line has appeared -
"Interesting, the medical pods are usually only good for five or six patients before they exhaust their resources," Llwyn commented to Fraiser on seeing the medical pod the earth team was using. "That is why we had to bring a power source with us."
"Oh? By my count we've had nearly fifty patients use it so far," Fraiser replied to her Nox colleague, motioning to the currently glowing isolation field. A screen popped up from the pod showing a patient count of 63, and Doctor Fraiser frowned. "Perhaps my staff have not been logging their use of the pod properly."
"That is far more impressive, and it may be time to see if we can trade ours in or upgrade them somehow," Llwyn commented.
"Hmm, yes. The medical pods you brought along did appear to be a slightly older model," Fraiser said, slightly distracted by the screen where she was now scrolling through the details of the treatments. "I know we tested curing hangovers on a lark, but that was only once, so why are there three entries for that?"
The pod updated the screen she was looking at expanding the list to show the test she'd been referring to was actually categorized under capability test trials so there were actually four hangover cures in the list.
"Interesting, ours are nowhere near as responsive," Llwyn said, eyeing the screen over Doctor Fraiser's shoulder. Behind them a team of Nox healers were assessing the triaged patients that were waiting their turn in the healing pods and using their healing abilities to keep them just this side of life.
-| A new line has appeared |-
The Nox combat team and those that refused the isolation suits to work in the triage center carefully canvassed the village, alerting the SG teams whenever they found someone needing to be taken to the medical triage area and working their way out towards the forest at the edge of the fields.
Overhead there was a flash of light as a new star appeared, bright enough to be seen through the daylight. It signified that something in high orbit above them had exploded, and was shortly followed by flashes of light that started collecting the villagers.
There was a rustling of movement from the vine around Obenne's wrist and he looked at it as though confirming something before looking up.
"The Asgard have arrived," Obenne said. "I believe many will now be saved that would otherwise have perished beyond even our ability to help, though something in orbit obviously delayed them."
-| A new line has appeared |-
9.1 - deleted scene - bon voyage SG-4
"But, just look at that purple sky sir," O'Neill said, morosely.
"Yes, I'm sure it looks gorgeous," Hammond said.
"I could just run down to the locker room and get my gear, take like 5 minutes tops," O'Neill continued.
"No, and that's final. You're in charge of integrating our new Jaffa into their teams for the next week, colonel," Hammond said. "Besides, Anders has his hands full, if under control with his extra temporary team members."
"Yes sir," O'Neill said.
Through the bulletproof window of the briefing room, he watched SG-4 walk up the ramp. Trailed by Ha'kiera and one of the NID team. Colonel Anders of SG-4 turned and threw a salute just as he did before every mission back towards the control room before falling back through the blue puddle of the gate. "Smarmy git," Jack muttered.
9.2 - Omake: Scheduled attempts - by CmptrWz
Hathor was annoyed at how...inefficient the Tau'ri were with moving her sarcophagus around, but had finally made it to the facility that likely housed the chappa'ai. Approaching the obvious guard station, she frowned as she realized that it was manned by armed women.
Well, all she needed was to get to the point of a male in charge speaking to her, so she approached the guard station.
"Hello," she said, aiming to at least not be attacked immediately. Needing to heal would be...inconvenient.
One of the women looked at her, then down at something in the little structure. "Hathor, right?"
They knew of her? "Yes."
"We're sorry, but we're already in the middle of a significant plague situation. We'll need to reschedule your attempt to take over the base. We're hoping to be done with the plague by Thursday, if you'd like to come back then?"
She blinked, and considered. "A plague?"
"Likely engineered, possibly by one of your contemporaries. Or possibly not. We're a bit out of the loop up here."
"I see. How many sunrises away is Thursday?"
"Three."
"Thank you, I'll see about returning then."