by Trish Williams
CHAPTER
TWO
~
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Teal’c was late.
Jack figured that should
have been his cue to realize something was wrong. Teal’c was downright anal when it came to being on time for a
debriefing. However, given his former
girlfriend just got a new lease on life, the Jaffa had really been acting quite
strange since they’d returned from Vorash.
After hanging back a bit to chat with Shan’auc about God knows what
while the rest of SG-1 waited at the gate, he had this weird expression on his
face all the way back to Earth. Jack
couldn’t shake the feeling Teal’c was up to something and trying to cover it up
but failing miserably. Add that to
getting boned by the Tok’ra again, with no Vaseline, and it made for a very
unhappy Jack.
God,
I could really use a beer right about now, he thought.
Finally, Teal’c came
strolling into the room, his hands loosely clasped behind his back. It didn’t even seem to faze him that he was
late, despite the confused and annoyed faces gathered in the room. This wasn’t an attitude they’d seen in him
before.
Actually, they’d never
seen it before.
“Master Teal’c,” Jack
quipped as he got up. “So nice of you
to join us.” Hell, he couldn’t sit down
for this.
The Jaffa just smiled at
him as he made his way to the front of the room. He rocked back and forth on his heels for a bit. Jack could tell he was chomping at the bit
to say something. And something told
him he wasn’t going to like it.
Teal’c smiled again and
looked off into the far corner of the room. “It is with much sadness that I
must take my leave of the SGC,” he said, turning around to see the dumfounded
look on the faces of his friends.
What
the fuck?
Oh, he was definitely
going to kill this Jaffa. But before he
did, he needed some clarification.
Thankfully, Hammond attempted to do it for him.
“Are you certain,
Teal’c?” the general asked wearily, hinting that Teal’c might not be in his
right mind while making this decision.
“He means a leave of absence,
sir,” Jack clarified.
“I have said what I mean,
O’Neill,” Teal’c said, giving Jack a pleasant but determined look. “I intend to live the remainder of my life
on Chulak.”
Sam closed her eyes
briefly and bowed her head in resignation.
Daniel let out a sigh. Hammond
just sat there like a bump on a log while Jack stifled his first instinct to
slap some sense into Teal’c.
“What on earth for?” Jack
demanded, inflecting upon every word.
Teal’c gave him a stern
look. “Do you not recognize the greatness
of Shan’auc’s achievement?”
Daniel decided to be the
voice of reason Jack couldn’t be. “Well,” he began, stuttering a bit, “I think
the point is if the whole idea was to get the secrets of the Goa’uld into the
hands of the Tok’ra...”
“And us, by the way,”
Jack interjected.
“Then it’s done,” Daniel
said, spreading his hands and then clasping them together. “Mission accomplished.”
Sam decided to throw her perspective into
the mix. “Teal’c,” she said, “even if you could train a large enough number of Jaffa
to communicate with their symbiotes, the Tok’ra already have a hard enough time
finding hosts.”
“Look, the point is, you
belong here,” Jack said, tapping the table gently with a finger to emphasize
his point.
“I belong where I am
needed most, O’Neill,” Teal’c chastised.
“And that is on Chulak at Shan’auc’s side.”
Son
of a bitch! Jack thought, his eyes narrowing at Teal’c. You
just had to prove me wrong, didn’t you?
He so much wanted to
strangle Teal’c for confirming Kayla’s fears.
As tough as she was, he wondered how she would handle this. His money was on not very well. Jack made a mental note to keep her away
from all firearms and explosives for a while, then put a date in his head for
the ass-kicking Teal’c had coming to him.
“Off-world activation,”
Davis’ voice blared through the PA.
Maybe
I can drug him before I beat him up, he thought as they all
descended into the control room to see what the fuss was about.
“Incoming traveler,
sir,” Seargeant Davis told
Hammond. “It’s the Tok’ra.”
“Here to share squat with
us, no doubt,” Jack sniped. He figured
the only way the Tok’ra could endear themselves to him now is to bring a keg
through the stargate. Preferably
already tapped.
Hammond gave him a
strange look. “Open the iris,” he
ordered.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
He
was going home.
All
Teal’c could think about when he and SG-1 gated from Vorash back to Earth was
how he could not wait to return to Chulak with Shan’auc at his side. Together they would teach their people how
to turn their symbiotes against their goa’uld captors and set their people
free. He was going back to his adopted
homeland with the woman for whom he held love in the purest form. Teal’c had lost her once to the Temple—he
would not do so again. But before he
would inform the humans of his intention to leave their service, he felt he
owed it to first tell the human female who had taught him so much about this
world.
Teal’c
went out to the airstrip where Doctor Kayla Porter was due to leave shortly on
her monthly trip to Area 51. She was
his friend, his confidant and, after he and SG-1 barely survived the crash of
Thor’s ship, they had become passionate lovers. Kayla had taught him more than he ever thought he would learn
about his Tau’ri ancestors, rituals and customs, and their ways of making
love. Teal’c had even inquired of
O’Neill about Tau’ri marital bonding rituals. He had found her to be more than
just a substitute for a Jaffa female—until Shan’auc came through the ‘gate and
reappeared in his life.
Bra’tac
had taken great risk in sending Shan’auc through the gate to Earth. She sought to inform the Tau’ri of her
discovery of a way to defeat the goa’uld.
At first he had been skeptical but eventually found a way to prove she
was right. Even in her darkest hour, knowing she had come to this world
expecting not to live, she remained strong.
And even though she was in great pain and bore it well, they had given
themselves to each other last night. It
was as if no time had passed since the last time they had been together all
those years ago.
Shan’auc
and Kayla had definitely not gotten along.
As he did in the beginning, she also doubted Shan’auc’s claim that she
could communicate with her symbiote.
Shan’auc was a priestess who required faith, Kayla was an engineer who
required proof. Conflict between them
was expected. But for the sake of his
people he had to try to find out if his former lover was correct. And when he put himself into that deep state
of Kel No Reem, and his symbiote communicated with him, his heart leapt. Shan’auc had been telling the truth all
along.
Shan’auc
was right—his place was on Chulak teaching his people the way to freedom. Kayla had recounted to him how her people
were once enslaved but had been freed.
Surely she would understand how turning a goa’uld symbiote would spell
freedom for his people. Kayla was most
sympathetic to him—out of all the Tau’ri he knew she would understand the most.
Teal’c
waved to Kayla as she got out of the jeep, her long, black leather coat whipping
in the fall breeze and an executive portfolio clasped at her side. Watching as the dark-skinned weapons
engineer approached, he kept telling himself that had Shan’auc not appeared, he
would have been making preparations to take her as a wife. But his first love, his childhood love, that
pure unadulterated love had returned to his life and he could not turn his back
on it now no matter how deeply he felt for Kayla.
“I
thought you were on Vorash,” she quipped, trying to tuck a lock of hair the wind
had blown out of place.
“I
was indeed,” he said, noticing the brilliant sunset behind her. For some reason
it looked especially bright today. “I am fortunate to have caught you before
your departure.” Kayla gave him a look
that said she still did not believe Shan’auc’s claim although he had told her
of his ability to communicate with his symbiote. Why could she not trust him and believe?
“I
honestly hope Shan’auc is correct,” she said, sounding sincere. “If she is, it
would mean a great deal to your people.
They’ll finally be free—that’s what you’ve always wanted.”
“She
has received a new symbiote,” he said happily.
“Now she will be able to teach others.
And I intend to be at her side.”
It
took awhile for Kayla’s brain to read between the lines he’d spoken. And once she did, her mind screamed in
protest. She hoped to God she was
wrong, but her instincts told her she’d been dead-on about this ever since she
saw the female Jaffa taking up space in Janet’s infirmary.
“You’re
leaving, aren’t you?” she said, not masking how hurt she was.
“Yes.”
Kayla
could hardly believe her ears. “Your place is here,” she reminded, pulling her
coat closer.
“My
place is where I am needed the most.
And that is on Chulak.”
Kayla
scoffed. “Has it occurred to you they’re trying to kill your ass on Chulak?”
she asked angrily.
“That
is of no consequence.”
“No
consequence?!?” Kayla exclaimed. “You
being killed is of no consequence?!?”
Teal’c
started to say something but stopped.
“What
I understand is this,” she said, pointing a finger at him. “I am on the front line here as is everyone
else at the SGC. It is my job to come up with new ways to defend my people
against the kind you carry within you.
And in case you’ve forgotten, Apophis, your former boss, is out to wipe
my people off the face of the planet. A
people you claim to be your last hope.
A people you pledged your loyalty and honor as a warrior to. And now because your former girlfriend ‘may’
be able to turn her symbiote you turn your back on my people? And me?”
Teal’c
was not comfortable with her tone. The
warrior in him knew everything she said was true. Everything she said made logical sense. He was abandoning her, SG-1 and the people of this world. But all the romantic in him could think of
was being with Shan’auc again, and that had overruled the warrior in him for
the past twenty-four hours. Earth was
not his home and Kayla needed to understand that.
“You
do not understand,” he told her in a tone more condescending than he desired.
Kayla
shot him a look that said she didn’t care much for how he’d just spoken to
her. “I guess I don’t,” she said,
pronouncing each word slowly. “ I don’t
understand how you can treat what we have, what we’ve built as if it doesn’t
matter. I thought I understood there
was something between us, but the real thing comes along and you’re gone. And
as pissed as I am about us, the bigger transgression is you turning your back
on my people and going back on your word as a warrior.”
That
hit him right where he lived, and he didn’t like it. It was like calling him a shol’va but in a slightly different
sense of the word.
Teal’c
moved closer to her. “Do you not
realize that when all Jaffa are able to turn their symbiotes we can defeat the
goa’uld and neutralize the threat to your people?” he pleaded.
“If they can be turned,” she emphasized.
He
was disappointed. “You still do not
believe,” he grumbled.
“No,
I don’t. You only did it one time. It doesn’t even prove what will happen once
it’s implanted.”
“I
have seen it implanted,” Teal’c informed her, the enthusiasm radiating in his
voice. “It has renounced its birthright
and has joined the Tok’ra.”
“So
it says!” Kayla spat. “Have you
forgotten the bomb in Cassie’s chest?
The biological organism Apophis hid in your son’s teeth? The goa’uld are ruthless and not above using
the innocent to slaughter millions.
Like I told you and Shan’auc yesterday, a leopard doesn’t change its
spots.”
Teal’c
expression turned angry. “Your lack of
faith in me is disconcerting,” he chastised.
“No Jaffa female would ever speak to me as you do.”
Kayla
raised her eyebrow and said, “That’s because no Jaffa female would ever dare to
call you on your bullshit.”
The
Jaffa stood there, speechless. The
truth of the matter was one of the things he admired about her was how she
stood her ground against him. But it
was also one of the things that annoyed him about her. Trying to press for her to further understand
the matter was futile, so he backed down.
He was about to get to the next order of business but Kayla beat him to
it.
“So
I’ll ask the cliché ‘woman’ question,” she said, relaxing her stance a
bit. “What happens to us?” Kayla turned around when she heard harried
footsteps approaching them.
“We’ve
gotta go, Doc,” the Airman said urgently to her. “We’ll slip our schedule if we don’t.” Kayla told him she’d be along shortly.
“I regret
to inform you that we will have to end our dating relationship,” he said after
the Airman was out of earshot.
“You’re
dumping me?” Kayla was stunned at the lack of emotion in his voice.
“I
am simply…postponing our relationship,” Teal’c informed her. “Should I return to Earth …”
“Teal’c
… don’t,” she warned, holding up a hand as to physically stop the words from
flying out of his mouth.
He
could have sworn he saw the beginning of tears in her eyes and a part of him
became angry for hurting her. But the
romantic in him assured that hurting her was a small price to pay to be back
with his true love and his people. Had
things been different, had Shan’auc not come through the gate with a way to
free his people, he could have had a future with this Tau’ri female who linked
him to this world of which his ancestors were descendants.
He
watched as Kayla strode angrily towards the small plane. Before she went inside, she gave him an icy
glance, her hair whipping in the wind about her. He would surely miss her, but Shan’auc was right—he needed to be
on Chulak to mentor those he had inspired.
He had a responsibility to his people.
The Tau’ri, even though he descended from them, were not truly *his* people.
She
did not understand.
And
because he was going home, it was of no consequence.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The sudden ring of the
phone jolted Teal’c out of Kel No Reem.
It took a few moments for him to get his bearings and make his way over
to where it was. Slowly taking it off
the hook, he had a sneaking suspicion who was on the line.
“Master Teal’c?” Jack’s
cranky voice asked.
“O’Neill, it is I,” he
said.
“Would you mind joining
us in the debriefing room? You’re
about, oh…a half hour late.”
Teal’c swore gently in
his native tongue. Very rarely was he
so deeply engaged in meditation that he did not awaken when he was supposed
to. Perhaps he should invest in an alarm
clock as Daniel suggested.
“I will be present in ten minutes,” he told Jack. “Please convey my deepest apologies to
everyone present, especially General Hammond.”
After hanging up the
phone he let out a deep sigh.
Perhaps he shouldn’t be so
hard on himself. It had only been three
weeks since Shan’auc’s death. She
believed so much that the goa’uld she carried could be turned—to make it
forsake its destiny and believe they were evil, but unfortunately that was not
the case. Now, Shan’auc’s killer
inhabited the body of an innocent host—a spy among the Tok’ra of whom they were
aware. The information Tanith would
provide the Tok’ra would be used to their advantage—assuring Shan’auc’s
sacrifice would not be in vain.
As he splashed water on his
face and looked in the mirror, he wondered just how he could look Kayla in the
eye and convey how sorry he was; how embarrassed he was at treating her as if
she did not understand, as if her people weren’t in as much danger as his were,
as if she did not matter. It was hard
to admit that he’d come close to treating her as if she were an insolent slave.
He needed to talk to her;
needed to tell her that he hadn’t been himself during the time Shan’auc was
there. To tell her that in light of the
situation he still had deep feelings for her, and that those feelings went
beyond friendship, beyond being lovers.
To ask her for
forgiveness. Again.
He made
quick work of preparing himself and then left for the debriefing he was already
quite late for. As he made his way,
Teal’c told himself there was probably a reason he kept re-living the scene
between he and Kayla at the airstrip.
It was probably penance for his hasty and shortsighted action. He’d been so caught up in the idea of going
home with one of his own kind that he’d pushed her and her feelings aside. Teal’c knew he would never forget the look
of shock and hurt on her face or the fury he had endured when she confronted
him with videotape evidence of his indiscretion with Shan’auc.
Ever since he’d met
Kayla, he had promised to be her protector; to assure no one would hurt her and
that no harm would befall her. But in the end, the worst thing imaginable had
happened.
He did not protect her
from himself.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
How she hated him.
Nephthys had the
unfortunate pleasure of currently being the queen of a sworn enemy of the house
of Ra. She had not done this purposely
for she’d only been a pawn—a spoil of war.
Considering how many times she’d tried to kill Apophis, it would behoove
her to escape as quickly as possible before her charm wore off. She knew she couldn’t stay with him for the
same reason she couldn’t stay with Setesh, for the same reason she conspired to
have Osiris banished. She needed to
stay until she could put her plan in motion, as soon as she figured out what
that plan was.
Nephthys looked on as her
king by conquest slowly emerged from his sarcophagus, taking glory in how
energized he felt. She hated that smug
look on his face, his insatiable thirst for power, how he acted as if she
should be kissing his feet for not killing her as he did her king. When Apophis made her his queen by force,
she swore she would never give up attempting to kill him until she succeeded. He knew she never masked her hatred towards
him and he told her how amusing he found guessing how she would attempt to kill
him next.
A servant came up and
draped a gold robe around his shoulders.
Apophis fastened it quickly then walked into the area where he would
take his meal. Nephthys followed, knowing
it would have been well within his rights to kill her, but doing so would
enrage her son. Apophis was not so
drunk with power as to forget that angering Anubis would not bode well for him.
Ignoring her piercing
gaze, he smiled at her and said, “I am not dead this time, my sweet.”
She scoffed.
“I must find you a new
host,” Apophis said as a servant poured him a glass of wine. “Sokar may have been the god of the
underworld but there is no need for you to look as if on the brink of death.”
“Your attempt at casual
conversation is pitiful,” she spat, scrunching her pale face up at him.
Apophis smiled graciously
and raised his goblet to her before taking a drink of wine. “It is far from it,” he said. “I would allow you to use the sarcophagus
but my First Prime has alerted me of a possible host for you on a nearby
world.”
Nephthys glared at
him. Knowing Apophis, her next host
would be quite young, attractive and fertile.
No doubt he would seek to seed it as soon as possible, regardless of the
consequences. It galled her how Apophis
seemed to have no regard for order and no fear of the system lords. Considering he was present at Osiris and
Isis’ banishment, Nephthys could not understand his continued defiance. Apophis was much like Sokar in that respect.
“I am looking forward to
an alliance with our son,” he said.
“Anubis is my son,” she declared. “And you know as well as I the system lords
will not allow such a thing to take place.”
“Pleasing the system
lords has never been of foremost importance to me…with the exception of Sokar
of course.
“I am only with you
because my king is dead,” she sneered.
“And I will only be satisfied once you are dead.”
“Silence, woman!” he
ordered.
“I will not be silent,
Apophis! Once Heru’ur hears of this, he
will attack.”
“I doubt he would attempt
such a thing,” he taunted. “But do not
worry yourself. I have plans for him.”
Her eyes glowed harshly.
“I will not stand in the presence of such insolence.”
Apophis laughed wickedly,
and then his eyes glowed. “You will do exactly that,” he said, grabbing her by
the arms. “And I look forward to having
my way with you once you have been put into a new host. As mistress of the gods that is your
function, is it not?”
All Nephthys could do was
glare and curse his name.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
As far as Kayla was
concerned, it was all quite simple.
Girl meets alien, girl falls for alien, girl screws alien, alien screws
girl, alien dumps her for one of his own kind.
Film at eleven.
Doctor Kayla Porter took
her time drying herself off from the shower she’d just taken. P5X-458 was a relatively primitive world—no
wildlife but a bumper-crop of naqadah beneath the surface. Over the past three weeks, she’d been
supervising the mining effort, weighing and classifying samples, writing
boring-ass field reports and milling a few pieces of metal from time to
time. Not very glamorous, but it kept
her busy; kept her from thinking about
being dumped by the SGC’s resident Jaffa; kept her from thinking about the
question which kept popping into her head.
Why the fuck did she
think things would be different because he wasn’t human?
Maybe because he seemed
so noble for leaving all he knew to fight to free his people. Maybe because he seemed to know so much, yet
value her knowledge and perspective.
Maybe because she knew what it was to feel like an outsider. Maybe because he held himself to a higher
standard because of what he’d done in his past. Maybe because helping to protect her world, he would find redemption
for his soul.
Maybe because he was so
good at screwing her brains out it short-circuited all rational thought.
Her mind flashed to all
the times they’d made love. The first
encounters were after he’d survived the crash of Thor’s ship. That was a quick overnight getaway to a posh
hotel with only General Hammond knowing of the exact location. Then there was a whole weekend when all
they did was eat, sleep and discover each other. And the time when instead of teaching her how to mediate, he’d
made love to her in the glow of the numerous candles softly lighting the
room. That experience alone showed her
just how much control he could exercise over her body, and how powerless she
was to stop her body’s response to his touch.
Her breath came out in
staggered intervals as she remembered how he would prepare her. His skillful manipulation of her pleasure
center with his tongue, the way he could tell if she was fertile or not just by
touch, the way he’d slip into her whispering words of lust in his own language
as his ardor grew. The only sound
sweeter than that was the deep, resonating groans and grunts of pleasure he
would let out with each stroke he made inside of her. She remembered the feel of his well-muscled ass as the cheeks
pressed together with each precision-crafted thrust. Each one caused her to cry out to her god in sweet agony, holding
onto his hulking shoulders and pleading to him for deliverance. And he delivered her every time.
Every time.
Kayla crossed her legs
instinctively as she felt the wetness creeping down her thighs. She bit her lip, trying not to cry out as
the psychosomatic sexual response sent waves of pleasure through her body. She wanted him so badly, needed to have him
inside of her. Never in her life had she ever been with such a skilled
lover. That fact alone both scared and
fascinated her at the same time.
The desire that
overwhelmed her almost made her want to forget what he’d done, forget how he’d betrayed
her trust, forget how he’d dropped her for one of his own. She was caught between feeling the urge to
kill him for betraying her, and wanting to have him pumping, groaning and
sweating on top of her.
The
Jaffa have got ‘cootchie control’ down to a science,
she thought with a snort.
It was probably that
‘control’ that made Teal’c think she could put up with him, even though he’d
cheated on her. Jesus, it was bad
enough that he had dumped her, but then to find out he’d slept with that…that
woman while still ‘dating’ her made her blood boil. And the way she’d found out was reprehensible. She didn’t dare go back into that memory for
if she did, she knew she’d just lose it again.
“I can get through this,”
she said softly.
Kayla toweled the last
remnants of her shower off her body with a stiff military-issue towel; careful
to avoid pulling on the gold cartouche and cross charms that hung on a delicate
gold chain.
Too late.
She swore a string of
curses as the chain snapped, sending the charms flying in different
directions. Kayla managed to hunt down
the cartouche because it was bigger, but the cross she failed to find. The thought occurred to her to look a little
harder, but then she remembered the towel had fallen on the ground and she was
crawling around completely naked.
As she put on her
undergarments, black T-shirt and fatigues, she laughed at her rationalization
that no one was going to see any intimate parts of her unless they’d at least
taken her out for a nice dinner and a movie.
Because she was the sole female team member, she made twice as sure she
was well covered up when leaving her jerry-rigged shower. Being stationed out here with SG-11 and
SG-3, engineers and marines, was quite an unequal mix of nerd power and
testosterone in extreme quantities.
Lieutenant Johnson, the
SG-3 Marine who seemed to think it was open season since Teal’c had broken up
with her, was jockeying for an opportunity to go out with her. According to what she knew, Teal’c and
Lieutenant Johnson had a tenuous relationship ever since the Marine attacked
him while under the influence of the ‘Caveman’ virus. Of course, it didn’t help that SG-1 and SG-3 had that whole
rivalry thing going on.
Regardless, she had to
admit how impressed she was, although she still thought he was a little nuts,
with him showing her how to heat rations using a piece of C4. Kayla figured there was nothing quite as
endearing as showing a gal how to heat food with a powerful explosive.
She would miss going out
with Teal’c, introducing him to different things. It was as if she were experiencing things over again that she’d
formerly taken for granted. But now,
now she just felt used. She was
second-rate, a substitute for what he really wanted or needed. He needed someone who didn’t have to explain
everything to him; who wouldn’t call him on his crap every time he tried to be
his usual stubborn self; who didn’t need to be ‘prepared’ or handled with care
during sex. She was like new Coke while Shan’auc was the original formula.
As long as she was human,
Kayla could never compete.
“Maybe Johnson is right,”
she sighed. “Maybe I do belong with my
own kind.”
She sat on her bunk with
her head in her hands, sobbing softly.
The last time she’d felt like this was when she’d caught her ex-husband
cheating the first time. But she had gotten lonely and like a fool, let him
come back. He repaid her by cheating
again and this time, Kayla hadn’t hesitated to unload a full clip into the
headboard while her philandering husband and his mistress screamed and begged
for their lives.
After that, she’d gotten
her shit together. She had called in a
few favors, sold the house and attacked her work at Area 51 with a vengeance.
With all the crap she’d gone through, she told herself that she should have
realized right then and there that there were no Prince Charmings in this
world, just a whole lot of frogs. And
apparently frogs weren’t just indigenous to Earth—Chulak had them too.
But she’d survive, just
like she had before. She knew she had
to get away, at least for a while, to regroup.
If she’d stayed at the SGC, she would have probably given in to Teal’c’s
constant pressure for her to forgive him.
And if Jack had come around to ‘console’ her, the urge would have been
too strong to jump in the sack with him and just complicate things even
more. She’d made the right decision to
come here, even if it was the ass end of space.
“Maybe I’ll get closer to
God here,” she scoffed.
Suddenly the hairs on the
back of her neck began to stand up. She
drew her breath in sharply, the adrenaline shooting through her body at
lightening speed. Kayla didn’t like
feeling this way. She felt as if she
were being watched. Quickly finding her
M9, she took the safety off and held it defensively as she panned the area of
her tent.
With all of the action
movies she’d seen, she figured she would face danger with no fear. But right now she was so scared her teeth
were chattering. She quickly made her
mind recall several positive mantras to repeat, but they weren’t working very
well.
“Johnson?” she called
forcefully. “If that’s you trying to
catch a glimpse of me naked, I’m going to kick your ass.”
When she turned around,
she felt something hard hit her in the chest, knocking her backwards.
Then everything faded to
black.
Colonel Jack O’Neill
rocked back and forth on his heels as he waited in the debriefing room with
General Hammond, and SG-1 sans Teal’c.
Ever since he’d realized the Jaffa was running late, he couldn’t stand
to sit any longer. And Jack, being the
life of the party that he was, decided to rail on the one thing that had been
bugging him ever since the whole Shan’auc episode. From the time he’d gotten off the phone with Teal’c, he’d been
filling Daniel, Sam and General Hammond in on all the reasons why he shouldn’t
kick Teal’c’s wayward Jaffa butt for cheating on and dumping Kayla.
“I don’t think you should
judge him, Jack,” Daniel offered as he rapped his fingers on the table. “He did love Shan’auc.”
“If you ask me he lost
his damn mind,” Jack grumbled. “Teal’c
spends months trying to develop a relationship with Kayla. Then Shan’auc shows up and blows it all to
hell.”
Daniel sighed. “You have to understand, it’s probably
really hard for him to be here, trying to fit into a world that isn’t his,” he
justified as he pushed his glasses up a bit with his index finger. “I also think he’s kind of embarrassed at
his behavior throughout this whole thing.
He’s a romantic, Jack. And romantics sometimes do crazy things.”
Jack just looked at Daniel
as if he were crazy. It wouldn’t have
been the first time.
Sam chuckled a bit. “A romantic?” she asked, her blue eyes full
of disbelief. “Are you serious?”
Daniel just
shrugged. “Yeah, he is.”
Jack figured Daniel had a
point but he wasn’t ready to concede just yet.
“What I know is that he dumped a good friend of mine just so he could
run off with his ex-girlfriend,” Jack said, walking his fingers in the air to
illustrate his point. “And we all saw
how he was ready to run off with her and kick us to the curb.”
Daniel then proceeded to
remind Jack of just how eager Teal’c seemed to make amends, but each gesture
was met with harsh resistance from Kayla.
Then Jack reminded Daniel how Teal’c had the gall to dump Kayla as soon
as Shan’auc had a new lease on life.
Daniel countered with the possibility they hadn’t discussed dating each
other exclusively. And then Jack told
Daniel about Teal’c’s absolute stubbornness about the whole condom issue and
how he’d been pressing for weeks for her to stop getting him to use them.
Hammond just sighed
nervously and looked at his watch. This
was much more information than he required.
“What does that have to
do with it?” Daniel questioned pointedly.
“She basically insulted him.”
“Insulted?” Sam asked in
a tone that indicated she was somewhat offended. She and Jack gave Daniel the same confused look. Hammond just put his head in his hands and
sighed again.
“From what Teal’c told
me,” Daniel began, “for a woman not to want to bear the child of a warrior can
be perceived as an insult.”
Jack blinked his eyes as
if trying to wring out the confusion.
“He told you that?” he asked.
Daniel nodded.
“So it’s not that much of
an insult for him to just want to knock her up?” Jack sighed heavily, tossing up his hands. “I can’t believe I’m standing here debating
Teal’c’s sex life with you, of all people.
Bottom line, Daniel, he fucked up.
Plain and simple.” Snapping his fingers, he added, “And oh, let’s not
forget the videotape shall we?”
They all exhaled sharply
at the mention of that.
The videotape incident
had become a well-known thing around the SGC.
In a nutshell, someone had anonymously given Kayla a videotape. One day, when they had been reviewing some
old MALP footage, Kayla had casually walked in and asked if they could identify
something on a videotape she had. Jack,
Sam, Teal’c and Daniel hadn’t had a problem with it until the footage had
started to play. After having gotten
acknowledgement from Jack, Sam and Daniel just whom the woman was that Teal’c
had been fucking, the drama had started.
Kayla had ordered all the humans out and then World War Three had
officially began. By the time the dust
had settled, she burst out the room on the verge of tears. When Teal’c had pleaded with her to let him
explain further, she had told him she didn’t want to ever see his face again.
And nothing had been the
same since.
“I’m not saying he’s
right,” Daniel told him, shivering as he mentally re-lived the incident. “I’m just saying you should try to
understand it from his point of view.”
“Well I’m sorry Daniel
but I can’t,” Jack said pointedly. “As
a matter of fact…”
Suddenly, Teal’c walked
in and all conversation ceased. Hammond
looked more than relieved that the Jaffa had finally arrived.
“Some of us have
overslept on occasion, Teal’c,” the balding general said in his warm Texas
drawl.
Teal’c bowed deeply, his
hands folded behind him. “I must
apologize again for my late appearance.
It will not happen again.”
“Understood. Take a seat, son.”
Sam cleared her throat,
trying her best not to stare at Teal’c.
“Our mission to P2G-557 was pretty standard with a few exceptions.”
“Exceptions?” Hammond
asked.
“The whole planet is run
by women,” Jack said, finally taking a seat.
“Correction,” Sam
stated. “The social structure is
matriarchal as opposed to patriarchal.”
Jack snorted. “Same
difference,” he said.
“Basically men are used
as laborers, soldiers and breeding stock,” Daniel added.
“Women are charged with
control of the judicial, legislative and executive areas of life,” Sam
lectured, almost seeming more than impressed.
“All high offices are held by women.”
Hammond looked
intrigued. Sliding his hands forward a
bit on the table, he said, “So what do they have that we want?”
“Trinium. Lots of trinium,” Sam said excitedly. “They are willing to negotiate a treaty
but…”
“They have reservations,”
Hammond deduced.
Sam nodded. “Let’s just
say they wouldn’t be very receptive to SG-9 and Major Kovachek. That unit is all male and the ruling council
probably wouldn’t meet with them.”
“Just because they’re
men?”
“Yep,” Jack quipped,
cutting his eyes at Sam. She ignored
it.
“I also did not see the wisdom
of this,” Teal’c said, avoiding Jack’s ‘nice of you to join the discussion’
look.
“But they have something
we want,” she informed with a shrug.
“So we’ve got to play hockey on their ice so to speak.”
“In that case,” Jack
said, reclining back in his chair, “I have first dibs on driving the Zamboni.”
“Zamboni?” Teal’c
questioned, his brow raised. “I am
unfamiliar with that vehicle.”
Jack was more than happy
to provide an explanation. “Well by all
means, Teal’c. Allow me to …”
“Unscheduled off-world
activation,” Harriman’s voice boomed from the PA system.
Hammond got a worried
look on his face. “No teams are
scheduled to report in today,” he said as they all headed down to the control
room.
“Maybe it’s the Avon
lady,” Jack quipped to Sam. She just
shrugged.
“Receiving SG-3’s
signal,” Harriman announced.
“They’re not due to check
in until next week,” Hammond told them as he folded his arms defensively.
“They are with SG-11,”
Teal’c said as he came in, the urgency unmasked in his voice. With
the exception of Harriman, they all knew just whom he was worried about.
After a few moments that
felt like hours, a lone Marine stumbled through the rippling blue event
horizon. He tried to stand up straight
but his injured body couldn’t comply. He
struggled to say something, then collapsed to the ramp with a metallic thud.
“That’s Lieutenant
Johnson!” Jack exclaimed, making a beeline for the gate ramp. Sam followed.
“Get a medical team in
here, stat!” she yelled over her shoulder.
“There could be more injured.”
Upon reaching him, Jack
turned the large Marine over and tapped his face gently. “Johnson, talk to me buddy,” he urged. “Where’s the rest of your team? Where’s SG-11?”
Johnson winced in
pain. “Dead,” he rasped. “All dead.
I…”
“Carter?” Jack asked
warily.
“I’m not sensing
anything,” she said, stooping down next to him. “He’s clean but Doctor Frasier should give him an MRI just in
case.”
“What’s the situation,
Colonel?” Hammond asked through the PA system.
Jack swallowed hard
before answering. “Lieutenant Johnson
says all of SG-3 and SG-11 are dead, sir.”
The frozen expression he
saw on Teal’c’s face said it all.
Jack then lowered his
voice and asked, “Where’s Doctor Porter?”
Johnson tried to answer
but passed out.
“General, sir,” Jack said
urgently. “Request permission to lead a
search and rescue.”
Hammond pulled the
microphone to him and said, “Granted.
SG-2 will accompany you.”
As the medical team
rushed in to take care of Johnson, Jack stood up and hurried out to the gear-up
room with Sam in tow. He vaguely
remembered Daniel falling in and Teal’c prompting him for more information
about what Johnson had said. Right now,
the only thing that worried him was the possibility of yet more dead SG team
members.
It was possibility that
never failed to scare the shit out of him.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Who
knew a one-night stand with a part-time stripper would help him save the world?
Colonel
Jack O’Neill watched intently as the scantily clad brunette went through her
routine on stage. Her hips undulated to
the funky sounds of a group called Cameo, who crooned about a woman as sweet as
candy. The heavy bass line of the song
reverberated in his chest, almost in tune with his quickening heartbeat. From the moves this woman was showing off on
stage, Jack couldn’t help but wonder what kind of candy she was peddling. The ‘come hither’ stare she gave him said
she’d be more than willing to give him a taste.
Settling
back in his chair to get a better view of the woman’s performance, Jack
remembered an Area 51 research and development engineer who moonlighted as a
stripper to appease her boredom.
Actually, he knew her as a stripper first. It was only sheer coincidence that when zipping up to Nellis one
day and stopping to help a stranded motorist, he found out the stripper was
actually the Area 51 engineer. He
hadn’t see the woman in over a year since that incident, so it shocked the hell
out of him to get a voice mail message from her two days ago that said she
needed to see him, and the matter could have serious repercussions for the
stargate program.
So
here he was, in a so-called Gentleman’s club, waiting for a woman who dumped
him in a letter. The place was as nice
as he remembered. Posh carpeting, top
shelf food and drinks, security guys who all looked like Jaffa, and oh yes,
strippers. The after-work crowd was
filtering in, and soon Jack figured the place would be packed. It was well on its way there now.
The
brunette stripper slid down a pole and landed on the edge of the stage in one
fluid move. Crossing her legs
seductively, she batted her eyes at Jack.
“What’s your name, honey?” she cooed.
“Whatever
you want it to be,” he said, looking her up and down.
“He’s
taken darling,” a voice quipped. “But
I’ll gladly give you a tip just to prove there’s no hard feelings.”
The
woman did a slight ‘hmmph’ and rolled back onstage. But before taking off she made sure to take the twenty the female
offered her. She wasn’t stupid.
“Fine place you picked to meet me
in,” Jack told the woman. “But I guess
it is fitting since it used to be your former place of alternative
employment.” He wanted to tell her that
in the dark sunglasses and mid-length black leather coat, she looked more like
Shaft’s little sister than a geeky engineer.
Common sense told him that if he did tell her that, she wouldn’t
hesitate to tell him to go fuck himself.
Doctor
Kayla Porter slid into a seat opposite the colonel. She took off her sunglasses and gave Jack a look that said put up
or shut up. “No self-respecting
‘family’ man would get caught here,” she said, flagging down a waitress for a
drink as she shrugged off her jacket.
“And even if Maybourne did show up, he’d look as smug as a preacher in a
whorehouse.”
“I
guess you’re right,” he said with an evil grin. The waitress gave him a welcoming look. At first glance, he wondered if she was a stripper here too.
“I
know I’m right,” she snapped with a knowing smile. “What are you drinking?
And don’t say beer.”
“Beer,
please,” he requested. The waitress
nodded.
Kayla
gave him a look that said she disagreed with his selection. “If you’re going to
drink beer, go for something a little more exotic than Bud from a tap.” She thought for a few moments then snapped
her fingers. “Bring the gentleman here
a Red Stripe and I’ll have a rum and coke.
Use Captain Morgan spice rum, not that watered down Bacardi crap Lamar
tries to sneak in when he thinks nobody’s paying attention.”
The
waitress clucked her tongue in agreement at Kayla’s statement. “I’ll be back soon with your drinks,” she
told them, giving Jack a wink. He
winked back.
“You’d think in a place with a twenty dollar
cover charge and a four drink minimum, it wouldn’t behoove them to serve cheap
shit,” Kayla snorted.
“And
don’t forget the anal-retentive dress code.” Jack took a few moments to look at
the light beige shirt and dark blue pants he wore. In a place like this, wearing jeans and sneakers would get you
tossed out on your ass, no matter how much money you had to spend. “Does your father know you talk like that?”
he asked, trying not to stare at what her tight purple shirt was trying to hold
back.
“Bite
me, Jack,” she said, briefly clasping both of her full breasts in her
hands. When one of the buff security
guards saw the gesture, he couldn’t help but stare. And when Kayla gave him the middle finger salute, he gestured to
bring it on. “Asshole,” she
quipped. “Like he’d even last. But he is kind of cute, so I wouldn’t mind
finding out.” Kayla gave the security guard a look that said she just might
give him the chance.
Jack
let out a chortle, then reminded himself that he should get down to business
before too much ‘eye candy’ came out to distract him. “Needless to say, I was quite surprised to hear from you,” he
told her. “I figured after the ‘Dear
Jack’ letter I got last year, talking to me wasn’t high on your priority list.”
“Jack,”
she sighed. “There are more important things to discuss besides why I dumped
you.”
“Well,
since I came all the way out here to Nellis, I figure I could at least get an
explanation. You know, a bone to throw
me? I think I deserve it.”
Kayla
looked at him impatiently as she ran a perturbed hand through hair that just
grazed her shoulders. “I love your
sense of humor. I really do. But you don’t have a clue when you’ve gone
too far with the sarcasm. It takes a
special kind of woman to put up with that mess. And when I decided to get rid of my soon-to-be ex husband I told
myself I would never again try to become the woman some man wants.”
“So
you’re saying you’re not her?”
“What
do you think?” she retorted with a raised eyebrow. “I care about you, I really do.
But you can get on my last good nerve.
If we would have stayed together, one night you’d wake up screaming from
the hot grits I dumped on you because I couldn’t handle your shit
anymore.” Kayla softened her
expression, briefly clasping Jack’s free hand.
“We’re better friends than lovers.
So let’s just be friends.”
Jack
figured that explained it all. Besides,
this was the woman who hadn’t hesitated to try and shoot her husband for
cheating on her. “So, how is Captain Dick these days?”
“Busy
wiping Maybourne’s ass,” she spat. “And
trying to get me back. Like I want his
cheating ass back.”
“I’ll
never forget the look of him running half-naked to his car.”
“Neither
will I,” she said, choking off a laugh at the memory. “And it was quite novel of you to toss his keys into the
grass. My neighbors sure got an eyeful
of a naked man trying to find his keys in the dark on my front lawn.”
“I
figured it was the least I could do,” Jack sniggered. “And the divorce proceedings?”
“Full
steam ahead,” she proudly replied, smacking the table with her hand. “Soon I’ll have my name back along with my
life. But he’s not making things easy. For some reason he thinks he’s entitled to
the Lexus I paid for. Asshole.”
Jack
peered over her shoulder through the one-way window that showed the parking
lot. Even in the dimly lit parking lot
her vehicle stood out. “Is yours the
silver one?”
“Yep.”
The
colonel let out a long whistle. “Very
nice.”
“Don’t
look too impressed,” she gently chided.
“It’s base model—a Toyota Camry with an improved engine and ten grand
slapped onto the price. A little steep
to pay for but the service folks kiss my ass when maintenance has to be done on
it.”
“It’s
still nicer than what I’m tooling around in.
That’s for damn sure.” It beat
the hell out of his Jeep.
“My
former husband has been running his mouth again,” she told him. “Tried to get me to work for a little side
operation of Maybourne’s—again.” Her
dark brown eyes turned serious, more serious than he’d ever seen. “It’s big, Jack. Really big.”
Before
Jack could answer, the waitress came back with their drinks. After she set then down, Jack tossed a hefty
tip onto the tray with a wink, telling her that if they needed anything else
that he’d come get her. “Talk to me,
Porter,” he said, wiping the condensation off of his beer. “What’s going on?”
Kayla
looked around the seating area, her eyes taking in the men coming in to be
entertained, and the women on stage earning their first round of cash. The music was loud, and meaningful
conversation was not something anyone came here for. She took a calculated sip of her drink and said, “They’re
stealing alien technology. I don’t mean
a little piece here and a little piece there either. Major stuff.”
“Do
you know from whom?” Jack didn’t want
to let on any more than he already knew.
Kayla was acutely aware of the stargate program, but he didn’t want to
lead her into a direction other than the one she was currently on.
“The
only one I know by name is the Tollan,” she recounted. “He calls another one the Roswell
aliens. Guess you have to read between
the lines to figure that one out.”
The
Asgard. Jack didn’t have to deduce
much.
He
took a long sip of his beer, relishing the taste. “This is some really good beer.
Different, but good.” He wasn’t
surprised. Kayla usually had good taste
when it came to food and drink.
“You
know, according to the law conversation between a husband and a wife is
privileged. I can’t be forced to
testify.”
“Can’t
or won’t?”
“I’m
not losing my job,” she snapped. “I’ve
got stuff to pay for including a shitload of student loans. So unless you’re going to pay them off, I
don’t have to do a damn thing except stay brown and die. Guess how much effort those two take?”
“Would
it help if I told you the world was a stake?”
Kayla
relaxed her posture a bit. “I’m
listening.”
Jack
leaned close to her ear and said, “Last
week, the Tollan, the Asgard and the Nox approached us, claiming we were
stealing their technology.”
“It’s
not the SGC,” she whispered.
“No,
but we have to convince them it’s a rogue operation.”
“We?”
she asked, sitting back in surprise.
Her tone of voice more than hinted he did not have her permission to
drag her into his mess. Her head shook profusely. “I’m not putting my ass on the line. I just wanted to let you know what I
knew. I’ve done my job.”
Jack took
another long pull of his beer, then set it aside. He caught Kayla’s eyes with his own, sending the wordless message
that what he was about to say went beyond serious. “Kayla, I’m about to go deep undercover. The Asgard have insisted I be the only one
involved.”
“Asgard?”
she asked.
“The
Roswell Aliens,” he told her. “But I
need your help to pull this off.”
“Why?”
“To
bolster our credibility, I want you to go to Tollana and testify to what you
know.”
Now
it was Kayla’s turn to take a long drink.
She drained the remainder of the cocktail, and then pulled a piece of
ice from the glass. “Through the
stargate? Scatter my atoms to the
cosmic winds?” She popped the piece of ice into her mouth, her mind clicking
like a stopwatch as it melted away.
“Listen,”
he said. “If the Asgard and the Tollan
cut off ties with us, we’re screwed when, not if, the Goa’uld show up
again. And you know as well as I do
that they will. The goa’uld are scared
shitless of the Asgard, and I’ve seen the Tollan take out a goa’uld mother ship
with the flick of a finger.”
“Damn,”
she muttered.
“So
you see what’s at stake here.”
Her
eyebrow arched sharply. “What’s in it
for me?”
“My
undying gratitude for saving the world?”
“You’re
going to have to do a little better than that,” she said pointedly. “Losing my job isn’t something I plan to
do. I lose my job, the Lexus gets
repossessed and that is just not going to happen.”
Jack
smirked, realizing how well Kayla could play hardball if her back was against
the wall. “Okay, come back to the SGC
with me,” he bargained. “Tell Hammond
what you know. And I will assure you’ll
have a job at the SGC.”
“Doing
what?” she asked, clearly intrigued.
“What
you do best. Make things to blow shit
up. I’m sure Hammond would just jump at
the chance to have a research and design engineer who knows Maybourne’s dirty
laundry.”
“Same
pay?” Kayla prompted. “Maybourne may be
a sneaky bastard but the NID is paying me a pretty penny. And the payments on that Lexus are more of a
bitch than I am. And that’s saying
something.”
“I
don’t know if the SGC will be able to match it but you’ll get to make all kinds
of stuff, travel to distant worlds, meet alien peoples…”
“And
blow shit up?”
“On
occasion,” he said with a laugh.
Kayla
laughed with him, her eyes scanning the club one more time. “Is it possible to say…mysteriously get my
student loans paid off?”
“I think I can pull a few strings
for you,” he hinted. “So what do you
say? Want to help me save the world?”
Kayla gave
him a look that said they had a deal.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Jack O’Neill burst
through the event horizon onto P5X-458, his MP-5 drawn and ready for
action. Night had fallen on the planet,
and the only thing that greeted him was the humidity and the sound of
crickets. He’d given the go-ahead to
SG-2 to go through first, and told Coburn the rest of SG-1 would be on their
six. As the rest of SG-1 came through
behind him, he wondered why SG-2 was just walking around as if
shell-shocked. Before he could bark out
something to Coburn, he looked further out towards the tree line, and saw
something that disturbed him to the core.
There were bodies. Dead bodies. Lots of dead SGC bodies.
What
the hell happened here? He thought.
Jack watched as the
members of his team weaved their way through the fallen. He knew they had the same question in mind
that he did. But before he could begin
to figure out what happened with these dead soldiers, or even start thinking
about what could have happened to Kayla, Major Coburn came up to him.
“We’ve begun scouring the
area,” Coburn informed him. “But from
what we can see so far, there don’t appear to be any survivors.”
Jack took another look
around and said, “If Johnson managed to survive, I have to believe some other
folks did.”
“I hope so. But that doesn’t appear to be the case.”
“Why?”
Coburn guided him over to
one of the bodies. He instructed another
solider to turn it over. It was riddled
with bullet holes, making the uniform look like moldy Swiss cheese at the
torso.
“Looks like friendly fire
to me,” Coburn ascertained as he adjusted his helmet a bit.
Jack shook his head. “I don’t
think so,” he said defensively. “I
don’t want to think so.”
“Who else would be using
our own bullets against us?”
“I don’t know,” Sam said
as she approached. “But all the bodies
I looked at are full of bullets.
Teal’c’s trying to see if there are any tracks that might indicate
someone else did this.” She held up a
shiny object. “I pulled a round out of
one of the dead. It’s standard military
issue.”
“How the hell could this
have happened?” Jack exclaimed.
“I wish Johnson could
have told us more before he passed out, sir,” Sam said.
“Coburn,” Jack said. “Get together a detail to start taking the
bodies back.”
“Yes, sir.” Coburn saluted briefly and then went to
handle the task he’d been given.
“So who started shooting
first?” Daniel inquired, adjusting his hat.
“I just saw some of the bodies.
Talk about strange.”
“I don’t know,” she told
Daniel. “Sir, are you sure all of
Maybourne’s people were arrested in your ‘sting’ operation?”
“Pretty much,” Jack said
as he looked up at the clear night sky for a moment. “But Maybourne’s slimy enough to have a few folks waiting in the
shadows somewhere. Maybe slimy enough
to exact revenge…” he muttered, kicking up a tuft of dirt with the toe of his
boot. He didn’t bother looking to see
where it landed.
“Revenge?” Sam asked,
looking a little confused. “For what?”
“You know Kayla used to
be married, right?” he asked Sam and Daniel.
“Yeah,” Daniel said. “To Captain Dick as she so affectionately
calls him.”
“And you do know that a
wife cannot be ‘forced’ to testify against her husband. Right?
Even at a court martial?”
Daniel nodded. It was a given Sam knew.
“Captain Dick, or, more
accurately Captain John Rogers was one of the people who got caught in my sting
operation,” he explained. “And Kayla
testified against him at the court martial.
She considered it poetic justice for all the shit he put her through.”
“I don’t understand,”
Daniel said, giving Jack and Sam a confused look. “If he’s put away, why would Maybourne come after her?”
“Because she gave some
pretty damning testimony.”
“Sir, I agree Maybourne’s
a slimy rat bastard, but for him to have someone slaughter so many SG team
members just to get to one civilian?” Sam asked with an air of disbelief. “That’s like trying to kill a mosquito with
an elephant gun.”
“Or giving a whale a
breath mint,” Jack muttered. Out of the
corner of his eye he saw Teal’c approach.
He hoped to God he hadn’t found Kayla’s body. “Teal’c,” he said, raking back some dirt with his heel. “What have your fine tracking skills picked
up?”
“Tracking is indeed
difficult in the grass, O’Neill. The
night does not make it easier.”
“So basically you can’t
tell me anything?”
“I said it was
difficult,” Teal’c informed him, his voice tinged with anxiety. “I did not say it was impossible.” The Jaffa stabbed the ground with his staff
weapon and exchanged determined looks with Jack. “The members of SG-3 and SG-11 were shot at close range.”
“It looks like they all
started shooting each other,” Daniel said.
“It does indeed,” Teal’c
said. “However, I cannot ascertain a
logical reason for such action.” Jack
watched as he took off towards a small colony of tents. One still had a light on and he followed
Teal’c as he warily entered that one.
After deciding the place was all clear, they relaxed a little and began
looking around.
“Nobody’s home,” Jack
remarked.
“And nothing appears to
be disturbed,” Teal’c said.
“Yeah. And that bothers me.”
“There are no discernable
footprints leading in or out.” Teal’c
struck a key on the laptop computer, causing a password field to pop up on
screen.
“I have to hand it to
her,” Jack said. “The woman is
extremely anal in protecting her work.”
This time, he wished Kayla hadn’t been so prudent.
“Indeed,” he said.
Then something shiny
caught his eye. Teal’c saw it too. Jack watched as the Jaffa’s large frame bent
down and picked up a small gold cross sitting in the grass. It was obvious Teal’c recognized the item
and turned it over in his large fingers to confirm his suspicions. Even from a
distance, Jack could tell the delicate chain it was attached to had been
broken. Given nothing had been
disturbed in the room, he figured she’d snapped the chain while taking her
shirt off or something. He’d done the
same thing once.
“What does it say?” Jack
asked, doing his best to make small talk of what was obviously some kind of
epiphany to Teal’c.
“It says nothing,” he
said, staring intently at the Tau’ri faith symbol. “But I can confirm that it belongs to Doctor Porter.”
The distress in his voice
hit Jack hard. He watched as Teal’c
stroked the charm gently, a myriad of emotions crossing his normally stoic
face. No matter how much of an asshole
Jack had thought him to be for the whole mess with Shan’auc, it was obvious he
truly cared about Kayla. Or was he just
feeling guilty?
It was then that
something within Jack just snapped.
“Teal’c,” Jack said,
exhaling sharply. “I’ve got to ask you,
what the hell were you thinking? I
mean, did you set out to screw her over or did it just happen?”
The Jaffa gave Jack a
pained expression. “I did not mean to
hurt her, O’Neill,” he said in a guilt-ridden voice.
“Well you did!” he
spat. “And I gotta admit, you did a
pretty good job of it. You know, I kept
defending you, telling her over and over you weren’t going to screw things up
and leave. Then you do and to hell with
her, to hell with Earth, and to hell with all of us!”
Teal’c opened his mouth
to say something, but decided otherwise.
Instead, he turned his attention back to the gold cross in the palm of
his large hand. The delicate item
sparkled in the light, and Jack could have sworn he saw tears starting to
appear in Teal’c’s eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Jack
apologized, bowing his head briefly.
“This isn’t the time or the place to do this.”
Teal’c gave him a humbled
look. “You cannot say anything to me I
have not told myself a hundred times.”
“I highly doubt…”
Jack’s words were cut off
as the sound of gunfire erupted outside.
They scrambled out of the tent, knocking over a few things as they
went. Double-timing it back to where
the noise was loudest, they saw the rest of their team and SG-2 embroiled in a
firefight with at least ten Serpent guards.
They shot less frequently than the SG teams, but their aim was downright
deadly at times.
“Serpent guards?” Jack
yelled to Teal’c as the fired their weapons, joining their teams in the
fight. “What the hell are Serpent
guards doing here? I didn’t hear the gate
open or a mother ship enter orbit, so where the fuck did they come from?”
“Apophis must be nearby,”
Teal’c postulated.
“Ya think?” he yelled to
him over the din of weapons fire.
“What’s going on?” Jack asked Carter as she fired her weapon.
“They came out of
nowhere, sir!” she explained. “We were
trying to send back some of the bodies when the Serpent guards transported down
and started shooting.”
“Well, I’m not about to
…”
Jack’s words were cut off
as a small fleet of death gliders came swooping down, firing as they went. He wanted nothing more than to bring the
dead back to earth to their families, but he knew the longer they stayed, the
more they’d be screwed with a capital ‘s’.
“Get through the gate
now!” Jack yelled to Coburn over his shoulder.
“Hopefully Johnson will wake up soon and give us some answers!”
They all laid down cover
fire as Coburn got what remained of his team through the ‘gate.
“Daniel, you’re
next. Get out of here!”
“Jack …”
Daniel’s protest was
interrupted by a low humming sound.
Jack shuddered inwardly as he recognized just what the sound was.
“Oh…shit,” he said.
They all looked on as the
transport rings came down one by one, humming eerily as they stacked upon each
other. A bright flash of light came
down, and when the rings went back up, they left a group of six Jaffa unlike
any they’d seen before. They were big,
tall and very muscular. From what Jack
could tell, the shortest one was about Teal’c’s size.
“No,” Teal’c whispered as
he tightened his grip on his staff weapon.
Jack stared at the Jaffa,
trying to make out what kind of helmets they wore. “Dog guards?” he guessed out
loud.
“More like Jackal
guards,” Daniel corrected.
Teal’c confirmed Daniel’s
assessment with a nod. “Correct, DanielJackson,”
he said.
Suddenly the Serpent
guards stopped firing.
“Why are they just
standing there?” Jack asked, noticing their staff weapons were still unarmed.
“Maybe they’re waiting
for something?” Sam postulated.
“For what?” Jack
hissed. “An invitation in a red
envelope?”
“Jaffa, kree!” a familiar
voice commanded. The Jackal guards
stepped aside purposefully to reveal the speaker.
“No,”
Teal’c said, his voice now pleading. “Please, no.”
It was Kayla.
SG-1’s blood ran cold as
they saw Kayla’s eyes glow briefly before acquiescing into an icy stare. She
was dressed in the same robes Sha’re had worn when Amonet possessed her, except
these were in gold. Her neck was
adorned in various jewels and strands of gold streamed down her shoulder-length
hair.
And she looked beyond
pissed off.
“Holy Hannah!” Sam
exclaimed. “She’s a …”
“Yes,” Teal’c hissed.
Her gaze swept past all
the SG-1 team members then came back and settled directly on Teal’c.
“Destroy the Shol’va and his
Tau’ri masters!” she commanded as her eyes glowed. The Jaffa that flanked her began firing their staff weapons
immediately with a furor and accuracy none of the SG-1 team members save Teal’c
had seen before. Strangely, the Serpent
guards still stood their ground, but did not fire.
Teal’c fired his staff
weapon, trying to slow down the advancing guards. But the blast didn’t even make contact with the intended
target. A translucent blue shield
appeared around each Jackal guard, protecting them against Teal’c’s
assault. SG-1 ducked for cover as
Teal’c’s staff weapon blast came flying back at them in a different color and
at twice the speed.
“What the fuck is that?”
Jack yelled, poising to fire his rifle.
“I haven’t seen anything like it before.”
“Sir, don’t!” Sam yelled.
But she was too
late. The bullets Jack had fired
ricochet off the Jackal guards’ shields and came hurtling right back at
them. They ducked for cover barely in
time.
“I thought you said force
was proportional and all that jazz for those shield thingies?” Jack said to
Carter.
“I thought so too,” she
told him. “But it looks like they’ve
got a more advanced shield mechanism.
Somehow it magnifies the kinetic energy of an object when it’s deflected
off the shield.”
“Then someone ought to
tell Heru-ur he’s got an outdated model,” Jack said.
“O’Neill,” Teal’c said
urgently, “we must go back through the stargate with haste.”
Jack
nodded in agreement. “Fall back!” he
barked, narrowly avoiding a staff blast only to get clipped in the shoulder by
the tail end of the energy pulse of another.
He didn’t feel much pain, so he figured it was just a graze. Ol’ Doc Frasier could fix him up as good as
new if they got out of there alive.
“We can’t just leave her
here, Jack,” Daniel pleaded.
“Well, we certainly can’t
bring her along now that she’s got a snake in her,” Jack said. “Carter, you and Daniel get through the
stargate now. Teal’c and I will cover
you.”
“Kayla!” Teal’c yelled as
he laid cover fire for his comrades while trying to see any remnant of Kayla
even though he knew she was no longer the woman he knew. She approached them slowly, her Jaffa
keeping their weapons at the ready.
“Teal’c,” Jack said in a
warning tone. “She’s no longer the
person she was. You know that as well
as I do.” But Jack also remembered that
when Teal’c had told him the same thing about Skaara, he didn’t want to hear
it. And it seemed Teal’c didn’t want to
hear Kayla could not be ‘reached’.
Shooting her would have been futile for the bullets just would have
hurtled off anyway. And chances were
Teal’c would have tried to stop him.
She looked between Jack
and Teal’c with eyes that definitely were hers but not controlled by her.
“You must do whatever it
takes to fight the demon that possesses you,” Teal’c pleaded. Jack knew that he knew his words meant
nothing to the symbiote, but could mean something to the host.
Her eyes glowed briefly.
“Nothing of this host will survive. And
neither will you,” Kayla said in her eerie goa’uld voice. Then she slowly raised her arm, opened her
palm, and let fly a ribbon blast that knocked both of them backwards.
The last
thing Jack remembered as he lost consciousness was the sound of transport
rings, and the feel of Teal’c’s body as it fell on top of him.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
[Chapter
One] [Chapter
Two] [Chapter
Three] [Chapter
Four] [Chapter
Five] [Chapter
Six]
~ * ~ * ~ * ~