TITLE: We Have Met the Enemy
E-MAIL: eli @ popullus.net
RATING: R
POSTED: Oct. 1, 2004
SUMMARY: The tornadoes were the easy part.
NOTES: Back in May there was a challenge around the release of The Day After Tomorrow, a film where Mother Nature went haywire and, well, the Apocalypse came. I found this concept amusing because, really, after all this time it was going to be the weather that did in the Stargate universe? ::sigh:: It wouldn't stay amusing. This comes close after S5's "Last Stand." Many thanks to FBF for the early encouragement and giggles; Carolyn Claire for the first true read through (and for a gentle Midwesterner nudge on the reality of tornado behavior that I have pretty much ignored in favor of artistic license and a funny line...sorry, CC); and Katie M. for that last kick in the pants to remind me that being lazy is rarely good for the story.
DISCLAIMER: Read
The tornadoes sprang up overnight. Because they had left his house only a couple hours ago and it'd be nice to do something worthwhile involving people dressed in uniforms that weren't military-issue, Jack went and found the others, and they all pitched in when the local emergency response teams sprang into action.
At dawn, the largest twister yet leveled nearly all of downtown Colorado Springs in two minutes.
"Where the hell'd that come from?" Jack yelled, foot and pedal pressing flat to the floor of his truck as they sped toward the mountain.
"What makes you think I know?" Daniel also yelled, pitching his voice above the wail of the sirens that had been going since just after 2 a.m.
They had finally broken free of all the cars headed very much the other direction, so Jack looked over long enough to glare. And to see the white-knuckled clutch that Daniel had on the door handle.
"Wasn't asking you. Carter!"
"I don't know, sir." She immediately leaned forward from the back, her hands braced on both headrests keeping her anchored when a stray blast of wind knocked the truck into the oncoming lane and Jack yanked it back. "I've never seen an F5 myself, so I don't have a true basis for comparison, but that funnel must have been clear off the scale."
"That's not possible," Daniel objected.
"Oh, yeah? Well, you can go back there and explain that to the people who got flattened by a figment of our imagination!"
"Don't snap at me, Jack." Now Daniel's voice was sharp, teacher to unruly student, and Jack grimaced. "I know it happened. I'm just saying that it doesn't happen naturally."
"You think it was the goa'uld, somehow?" Carter clearly didn't believe it and Jack wholeheartedly agreed with the incredulity in her voice. The snakes would love to stomp them flat, sure, but they wouldn't be this indirect about it. Indirect was more of a Tok'ra thing, usually.
Now there was a thought. And one that would get his head taken off if he mentioned it in front of Carter; she'd already been complaining that the high council hadn't let Jacob contact her for over a month. Still, Jack filed it under "don't forget," with an extra flag for "tell Hammond."
"What are we going to do, sir?"
Jack tightened his grip on the rebellious steering wheel. Nice that it also kept his hands from shaking. "We're going to get to the SGC. We're going to see what they know. I expect to help handle a panicked call from Washington, and you two are definitely going to figure out how to stop this."
That got a bark of laughter from Daniel, but Jack couldn't take his eyes off the road again, not with a sudden debris storm launching all kinds of fun their way. He swerved to avoid a pole with a mailbox still attached aiming right for the windshield and his shoulder hit the window, sending pain all the way down to his fingers. He cursed, then he blinked at a flash of red. Was that a Radio Flyer?
"Right." Daniel's snort of sarcasm snapped Jack's attention back inside the truck. "Because suddenly we're super meteorologists, with power over the weather."
"I don't know," Jack growled. "Niirti liked playing with genetics, maybe there's another one that likes playing with cloud particles or something."
"So 'go do research and stay out of my hair'?" Daniel demanded.
"Something like that," Jack fired back.
"Uh, guys."
In the rearview mirror, Carter was twisted around and looking out the back panel windows of the cab. Around her wind-spiked hair, Jack could just make out something moving. Something large.
"What's that?"
Carter spun back around and her face, filling the mirror now, was still. But her eyes were wide and vivid and scared. "You might want to drive faster, sir."
**
Jack resisted the urge to thump the elevator's red floor numbers for not blinking faster. He knew they couldn't actually hear the wind whipping around the crags and peaks of the stone above them. He could, however, almost smell the confused fear from the three soldiers crammed into the space with them. They hadn't put up any objections when Jack had flashed his 'tags and ordered them below. Not a surprise, really. Just as SG-1 had skidded to a stop, the chain link gate and the reinforced guard shack had disappeared into the air, leaving behind only the cry of the man who'd been sitting in the structure.
Jack's right shoulder twitched, shrugging off the memory.
Rolling his neck against the tensed muscles, he watched Carter. Standing over in the front left corner of the elevator, chin high and eyes blurred, her mind was obviously racing in whatever directions she could think to make it go. Who knew if any of them were the right direction, but Jack wasn't going to lay odds. He also wasn't going to get in the way.
He shot a look over to the back corner. Daniel's eyes were still down, his lips tight, his arms crossed and hands hugging his biceps. Jack shook his head and faced front again. Nothing he could do to help there, either.
The digital number finally blinked to 28 and Jack shifted onto his toes, wanting out. When the doors slid open, he moved so fast that he almost bumped noses with Teal'c.
"Hey."
"O'Neill." Teal'c inclined his head as slow as ever, but the smile might have been just a bit broader than normal. "It is good to see you safe."
"Yeah." Jack clapped a hand on Teal'c's shoulder and couldn't hold back a grin as the others filed out of the elevator around them. The mountain and Teal'c; one just about as solid as the other, and both still standing. Thank god. "Glad you stayed behind this time, huh? It's a mess out there."
"That's one way to put it," Daniel muttered, sliding past.
Jack frowned. What the hell was--?
"Colonel O'Neill," Hammond called, and Jack turned on his heel to face him.
"General. I'd say we have a problem."
"I'd say you're right, colonel."
He was pretty sure, but it was worth asking anyway. "The mountain's not in any danger?"
"Not from a tornado," Hammond confirmed. Because he still looked way too grim, Jack sighed. Washington. One of these days the politicians were going to just run and hide their precious little heads, but today, apparently, he wasn't that lucky.
Hammond nodded to the three remaining guards, who immediately headed out, although probably not to the three days worth of sleep that they were craving. At least they were going to get a chance to shower. Jack brushed his hands against his pants at that thought, his fingers picking up more grit. He didn't want to think about what plot of land was missing all that loose dirt. Or what else it was missing.
"Come with me, SG-1," Hammond ordered before starting down another corridor.
Jack really wanted to share Carter's frown, but he only jerked his head as he turned, and he felt the others fall in behind him. They were almost to the gateroom when the claxon sounded, a normal noise added to the day. But Jack's eyebrows went up when there was no tense-voiced announcement to go with it.
"Expecting visitors, are we?"
"The Tok'ra," Hammond said with a nod. "They responded to our inquiry, but wanted to provide the information in person."
That flag he'd raised earlier in his mind waved, happy to help ratchet the knot in his stomach even tighter. Jack glanced at Carter, then double-timed it for a few steps to come even with Hammond. "Sir? Are you...sure that's wise?"
Hammond tilted his head as they made the turn into the gateroom. "What are you asking?"
"Nothing. Exactly." Jack shrugged. They came to a halt at the bottom of the ramp and Jack wrestled with that flag for about three seconds before turning away from the others slightly, keeping his voice low. "We know the Tok'ra tend to have...spy problems."
"You think they have something to do with this?" Daniel asked from behind him, an incredulous laugh lending an edge to his words.
Carter spun. "Sir?"
Oh, for-- "No, I don't think the Tok'ra did this." He scowled at Daniel, who gave him that skeptical look that always set Jack's back up. Damn it. "Okay, maybe a little," he allowed with a, hopefully slight, sneer. "You have to admit, they were a bit pissed about nothing going as planned -- as though that's unusual -- the last time we saw them."
"Yes, sir," Carter piped up from his other side, "but--"
"I do not believe the Tok'ra have the ability to effect such a change in the weather of a planet, and I can see no reason that they would use it on this planet if they did," Teal'c offered.
Jack waved a hand his direction. "And then there's that. Look," he said, focusing on Carter, "it's just a concern. We don't have any idea what caused all this, remember?"
Annoyance still twisted her mouth, and he was going to be catching small pieces of hell for this from her for months, but she didn't say anything more.
Hammond shook his head. "Whether your concern is valid or not, the Tok'ra are still our allies." The last chevron glowed to life and the 'gate went ka-woosh. "We'll be careful, as always, colonel."
"I'm sure we will, sir," Jack nodded and faced the ramp again. He still wasn't going to take his eyes off whoever walked through.
Some of the tension went out of the room when Jacob was the first person to appear. He didn't come with a smile, but it was good to see his face. So maybe he had been a little worried about that enforced silence, too, Jack admitted.
"Welcome," Hammond said as two more Tok'ra stepped through the shimmer.
"Hello, George." Now Jacob smiled, although it was a slight one, and it disappeared before he hit the bottom of the ramp and turned to Carter. "Sam."
"Dad." Jack saw her try to smile, but worry took over. "You look tired."
Jacob huffed out a little laugh. "It's been a tough couple of weeks, kiddo."
Before Carter could say anything, the other two Tok'ra stood straight and snooty before them, and Hammond went into full-on distinguished leader action, herding them all up into the briefing room.
At the table, Jack found himself between Teal'c and Daniel, and facing one of the sternest Tok'ra he'd ever laid eyes on. He looked kind of like this sergeant with a very hard head and an even louder mouth from the Academy, actually. Same bushy eyebrows.
"What we have to say isn't going to be good news for you," Jacob said from his post before the display screen.
"No offense, Jacob, but the day you guys bring good news is the day the world ends," Jack replied, giving the one across from him a smile -- just because they were friends. The Tok'ra's frown deepened.
Jacob coughed. "Well, actually..."
"Dad?" Carter asked, and Jack leaned forward to look around Teal'c at her. The situation wasn't good, granted, but she sounded awfully worried there.
With a grimace, Jacob spread his hands. "It's not the goa'uld."
"What?"
Daniel got it out before the rest of them, so Jack nodded, encouraging sharing. Jacob shrugged and the woman -- jeez, he really needed to start listening to the introductions -- took up the explanation while Jack suppressed a shiver. No matter how often he heard it out of the "good guys," that voice just wasn't right.
"There is no sign that any of the system lords have been near Earth in recent months," she intoned. Jack wanted to shake her and demand that the host come out and be sympathetic, but she was continuing, so he held off. "As well, none of our operatives have ever heard of a goa'uld harnessing the elements in this way."
"They're not all system lords, and just because you've never heard of it--"
"If they had something like this, we'd know it, Daniel," Jacob assured them. Jack rolled his eyes, but Jacob was already turning to Hammond.
"George, I'm sorry, but if this isn't natural, we have no idea who's doing it."
A rhythmic tapping broke the silence. When Teal'c turned his head toward him, eyebrow raised, Jack blinked and looked down. Huh. His fingers went still.
"So." He flexed his hand on the table, making sure he had control. There wasn't a lot of it to go around right now. "It really is the end of the world."
**
He didn't know how Carter had managed it, but she and her father were in her lab -- without the tagalongs.
Jack settled on one of the stools and tried not to think about the reason Hammond had kicked him out of his office. Best way to do that?
"Should we throw a party? One last big bash?"
Carter frowned, disapproving. "Sir, I know we can get an incredible number of people to the alpha site before the Earth becomes completely uninhabitable, but we can't just sit back and let this happen to everyone else."
Jack harrumphed, because that seemed to help, and spun the stool until the seat lowered a good half foot. Then he went the other way, because dizzy wasn't helping. "Don't see how we're going to stop it, not if it's Mother Nature unleashing her wrath."
"You're taking this incredibly lightly, Jack," Jacob said, almost making it a question instead of an accusation.
Jack caught his right foot on a table leg, jolting himself to a stop. Before he could say anything, Daniel and Teal'c walked in.
"A good portion of the west coast is effectively gone," Daniel stated, raising a hand to rub the back of his neck.
When Carter and Jacob turned on him, worry pushing Mark's name out of both of them, Daniel's eyes went wide.
"Oh, no, no no." Daniel shook his head and put a reassuring hand on Carter's arm. "Los Angeles and south is hanging on, but..." He trailed off and Jacob nodded. Mark was no idiot, but Jack was sure calls would be made.
"What happened?" Carter asked, her eyes still concerned.
Daniel shrugged with his whole body, effectively voicing everyone's feeling of powerlessness with one gesture. "Earthquakes, tidal waves, possibly a typhoon."
"Don't those usually go the other direction?" Jack asked, and now he had three people looking at him like they wondered when he'd cracked. But, he noted, they were focused on him now, not the lives and deaths outside.
"Sir," Carter said, with that hint of disapproval that stayed just below the line of disobedience.
"Hammond's working on an idea," Jack told her.
"General Hammond?" Teal'c cocked his head. "I do not understand what the general can do that Major Carter cannot."
"Care to explain?" Jacob asked, this time with every bit of with that fatherly condescension he was so good at, and Jack rolled his eyes before looking around at the rest of his team. Carter's mouth was working, but no sounds were coming out. Daniel simply folded his arms across his chest, waiting.
"Look, we don't know if he's even still alive, so I'm not holding out any hope here."
They all frowned at him.
"Who?" Daniel finally asked.
Jack kicked the table leg. "Maybourne," he muttered.
Teal'c raised that damn eyebrow. The disgust on Daniel and Carter's faces wasn't much better. Jacob looked at each of them. At least, Jack thought it was Jacob. When he went silent like that it was hard to tell whether Selmak was the one in charge.
"They had that Touchstone for a while. They had a whole bunch of things for a while that they shouldn't have had." He didn't know why he was sounding so defensive, but it came out that way anyway. "Hammond's trying to track him down, figuring he might still have something up his sleeve."
"All of those items were taken under NID authority, were they not?" Teal'c asked. "Do you believe they would withhold information or solutions at a time such as this?"
Jack kicked the table leg again, and then decided not to do that any more. "NID's gone to ground. The entire damn organization."
"All of them?" Carter asked.
Jack sneered. "Yeah. So much for 'love of country' and all that."
Carter frowned.
Jacob stepped forward, holding up a hand. "Okay, someone here want to explain what and who the hell you're all talking about?"
**
Jacob's friends left him behind; not exactly fleeing, but definitely happy to not be stuck on a sinking ship that wasn't theirs, Jack felt.
He couldn't really blame them, but he didn't watch them leave. He didn't think they would've appreciated his thanks added to Hammond's, since he was mostly interested in thanking them for providing their universe-famous patented lack of help. Again.
Besides, he had his own calls to make. Okay, call. Which took longer to dial than it actually lasted. How exactly do you phrase a call like that at a time like this, other than saying, "Don't panic...too much, but pack everything you can carry." He wondered about that for a while once the receiver was back on the hook and the room was silent.
He was contemplating wandering over to check if Teal'c needed any help boxing up all his candles or anything when Hammond's summons came.
**
Even in a set of BDUs a good two sizes too large for him, Harry Maybourne was still a weasel. Sharp eyes, cunning brain, thin smile. So maybe he was a weasel crossed with a rattler.
Jack had said nothing to him when they brought him into the conference room. He wasn't going to say anything, either. He was going to sit here across the table and stare at him until his neck hurt or Maybourne cracked and told them how to fix this, because Jack knew that he knew how and staring was as good a plan as anything anyone else had come up with.
Plus, he'd been overruled on shooting the man.
Picturing where he'd put the bullet -- breaking a man's femur had never killed one, but then, neither had a shattered elbow -- Jack permitted himself a slight smile. Not an obvious happy-thought grin, but Maybourne knew him and he would see it. And he would know that there was always later.
Just then, Hammond looked over and pinned Jack with that "Don't think that thought any further" look that all good leaders had, although he was one of the few that pulled it out at the right time, every time. Jack thought about trying the "What? I wasn't thinking anything" look that he'd long since perfected, but gave up the cause as lost before attempted and dropped his chin onto the heel of his hand so he could go back to staring in comfort.
"There's no reason for you to hold back anything at this point, Maybourne," Hammond went back to saying. "You're only alive because we found you in time to pluck you off what was left of that island."
"I've been...out of circulation for almost a year, general."
Maybourne's smile was growing even thinner, a sign of his own impatience that Jack recognized and, you know what, screw the staring.
"So out of circulation that you've been extremely helpful a couple of times in the last...what? Four months?"
Maybourne tilted his head, giving Jack a good look at his sneer. "I wasn't being 'helpful.'"
"Oh, really?" Jack scoffed. "Because I've seen what your definition of 'hinder' is."
"I was dealing with Simmons, Jack," Maybourne snapped. "I helped set him up and I was going to take him down."
Jack mulled that one over for a moment, grateful once more that Hammond was Hammond, which meant that despite their unstoppable curiosity, the rest of the base -- particularly his team -- was out in the corridor.
"You said something like that before." He leaned forward and put as much condescension as possible into his expression. "You getting a conscience in your old age, Harry?"
"Not a conscience." Maybourne let out a cynical laugh, rusty, like even on that island full of sun and women, he hadn't had much use for that reaction. "Men like that are too dangerous to let run around unchecked like--"
"That's bullshit." Jack slashed at the words and the air with his hand, and Maybourne slapped both hands on the table.
"I never did what I did for personal glory or power! I did it to protect this country, something that your own past actions," he spat, "have thoroughly prevented from being possible."
Jack just about leapt over the table. "Do you think I give a crap about why you do anything? Really?" Hammond's hand coming to rest on his left arm was only a distant sensation as Jack stabbed a finger across at the man glaring at him. "Come on, Maybourne, if you want to talk about dangerous, take a look outside! That's not a storm, that's a full-fledged disaster. And I'm not going to let you sit here twiddling your thumbs while you get your kicks from finally getting to think, 'I told you so!'"
"That's enough, colonel."
Hammond's calm tone didn't hide the order in his words, but it did make Jack realize he was on his feet and straining against the general's restraining hand.
"Yes, sir." Jack bit that acknowledgement off and dropped back into his chair. Maybourne, he was absolutely thrilled to see, wasn't sneering any more. In fact, he looked downright bitter.
"I...don't...know...anything," he enunciated. "The only thing we ever had that could cause or prevent weather-related destruction on this scale was the Touchstone."
Jack started to speak, because that might be true, but--
"You had the device for some time before we retrieved it, Maybourne," Hammond said, the "general" as a heavy weight in his voice as his hand continued to be on Jack's tense arm. "Don't expect me to believe the NID didn't manage to gather some information on it."
Maybourne scowled. "The information the techs did gather is likely buried so deep in NID databases that there is no way anyone is getting it out now. Even if those systems aren't lost to an earthquake or tidal wave or whatever other 'disaster,'" he narrowed his eyes at Jack, who faked a smile back at him, "they closed down every back door I knew. Believe me, I've tried."
Jack shook off Hammond's hand. "Yeah, well, we'll try again."
**
Maybourne might have nodded. He might have even given Hammond his word that he'd help when that nod hadn't been enough. But, damn, that man was good at making sure that nothing was easy.
Hammond had the really hard job, because briefing the president was hardly on the list of fun things to do at the best of times. And being surrounded by the rest of SG-1 usually made any situation easier, if not easy. But right now, Jack felt, that red phone at least would've been scary from the beginning.
Two minutes ago everyone had been frustrated, but dealing. Then somewhere in those minutes Maybourne had sneered, Carter had snapped back, and now Carter was looking at the pen in her hand like she was calculating the trajectory plus speed plus pure controlled rage that it would take to embed it in Maybourne without making too much of a mess of the conference room.
Jack almost snatched the pen away from her, but she brought herself back from the edge with a shake of her head, her fingers loosening. She slowly placed pen and notebook on the table like the weapons they had nearly become. That damn scary gleam didn't leave her eyes, though.
A low voice distracted Jack just as Maybourne started another "do, too" comment.
"This isn't your brightest idea ever, Jack. It's hard to believe, given the circumstances, but you might actually be lowering the chances of everyone getting out of here alive."
"Thank you, Daniel." Tilting his head away from the other side of the table -- Teal'c would make sure there wasn't any bloodshed, probably -- Jack bestowed a smile on the man next to him, one filled with enough sarcasm to go with his words. "Unless you have something constructive to add, you can leave."
With a bemused smile, Daniel looked back and forth between the two combatants across from them and waved a dismissive hand Jack's direction. "Oh, no. You never know what I could add to the discussion."
Jack frowned, eyeing the growing sneer on Maybourne's face and the way Carter's mouth tightened like it did when she was working really hard to not call him an idiot to his face. Goddammit. This day wasn't getting any longer and they still didn't even know what was going on.
He stood abruptly and his hands cut through the air in a sharp directive to cease. All the heads in the room, including the guards', snapped around to him. Good.
"Okay, that's it," he announced. "You," he jabbed a finger at Maybourne, "stop being a prick. Teal'c, you're in charge of reminding him what that entails. Any means necessary, with my blessing." Maybourne narrowed his eyes and Jack could see the retribution being contemplated within, but the man was still effectively a prisoner, and Jack was still the one with the gun, so who really gave a shit? Especially when Teal'c only nodded while Carter didn't hold back a satisfied smirk.
Jack turned on her. "You, stop trying to prove your brain's bigger. We know it is. It's the biggest brain ever," he said, holding up his hands in mock wonder. "So stop it," he growled. "His is one of the weirdest brains ever and maybe he's thought of something you haven't, capiche?" He glared a bit harder when she heaved an aggrieved sigh. She finally nodded. Peachy.
Jack turned his glare downward to the man sitting back in his chair with his head cocked questioningly and a wide-eyed look that he hadn't been able to pull off for years. "You." Daniel blinked, but it didn't erase the amusement in his eyes and Jack felt a snarl build. "You just sit there and stay quiet." Mobile eyebrows went up. Jack refrained from grabbing his head in pain. It would be so much easier to use his hands to choke Daniel because, damn it, sometimes... "Unless a revelation to rival the discovery of gravity hits you over the head, you're not to say word one, you hear me?" he ordered, as if that would make a difference.
Daniel nodded without hesitation, his expression still caught between innocence and laughter. Didn't matter; he was silent and that, right now, was enough.
Jack smiled, and almost meant it this time.
"So," he said brightly as he sat again, "let's get to work."
**
After they got the computer set up on the conference table, Teal'c only had to offer to go get his staff weapon twice before Maybourne "remembered" a code that hadn't been used since he'd started at the NID.
"If they're dumb enough that they haven't deleted the privileges under this thing, they deserve to be taken down by a script kiddie, never mind us," Maybourne muttered as he hung over Carter's shoulder to get the best view of the nonsense on the monitor.
She didn't try elbowing him away again, but her back straightened even further with her distaste as the browser came up and she typed in the address yet again. Jack hadn't expected it to be a matter of hitting two buttons and in, but he was beginning to wonder if they'd have been better off knocking down some physical doors. It couldn't possibly be slower. They'd had to shut down the machine every two tries or risk either their system or the one at the other end being deliberately burned out. Superparanoid freaks, Daniel had muttered. Maybourne had laughed in agreement and a little bit of pride, too, Jack thought.
The login screen materialized once more and Maybourne paused long enough that Jack turned on him, impatient. "Again, Maybourne."
The man sent him a narrow look, then leaned forward, reaching for the keyboard. He gagged when Teal'c jerked him upright by simply refusing to let go of the neck of the man's shirt. "Tell Major Carter the words," Teal'c said in a very First Prime tone of voice, and Jack stepped closer and felt Daniel move in to support them. This was a first. What exactly was Maybourne trying to pull, going for the computer like that?
A glare. "Fifth," Maybourne spat. "Password, 'Hal.'"
"W-what?" Daniel asked, sounding like he was the one that had gotten strangled, but just then Carter said, "Hey!" and Maybourne gasped, and there on the screen was the best thing Jack had seen all day: a happy colored government seal welcoming them to the NID inner sanctum.
"Guess your boys are just that dumb," he told Maybourne.
"Indeed," Teal'c said. "That was not nearly as complex a password as the ones we tried previously. You said your passwords required numbers. 'Fifth' is not a true number."
Maybourne offered up a smile. "Oldie but goody."
Daniel finally found his voice. "You cribbed Shakespeare?"
"Like I said." Maybourne spread his hands as if in apology and Daniel muttered something about not even getting that right.
"Where do I go from here?" Carter demanded, voice sharp, and they all turned back to the computer to see that she'd gotten past the seal and was now faced with a screen full of annoyingly rotating icons.
"You should be able to access the research database from here," Maybourne said, and pointed. "That icon over there, the one on the left. It'll drop down into a menu. Look for 'connections.'"
"'That icon,'" she muttered. "The one with the winking lady labeled 'entertainment,' you mean?"
"Yeah." Maybourne chuckled reminiscently and Jack thought about slapping him upside the head on principle. Teal'c caught Jack's look and raised a disapproving eyebrow. Well, hell. He hadn't planned on hitting him too hard.
"Whoa, wait a sec, Sam." Daniel pushed forward, eyes locked on the information scrolling by. "Back up a bit...no, a...yes! It is!"
He was crowding closer to the monitor, peering at something that looked like the duct taped together version of the Touchstone. Except only an idiot would actually use duct tape on something like that, so...
Jack tapped Daniel on the shoulder. "They did it, didn't they?"
"Sure looks like it," Daniel said, motioning Carter to scroll down again. She already was, leaning into the monitor, muttering. She was also blocking the monitor. All Jack could see when he went onto his toes to try another angle was more of the top of her head and a lot of equations that didn't make any sense, but they were in English, he recognized that much.
Jack turned on Maybourne. "Didn't have it long enough, huh?" He stepped forward, getting into the man's face. "Where is this?"
Maybourne leaned back, but didn't get far before he ran into Teal'c's chest. He didn't even startle, just curled his mouth into a sneer as he looked straight into Jack's eyes and shrugged.
Carter suddenly swung around on her chair to face them. "Wasn't he called Hal in Henry, IV?"
Maybourne snickered and Daniel muttered, "Thank you."
**
They were in, so now it was only a matter of pushing some buttons to get the system to spit out a list of labs and other likely locations. Of course, being the organization it was, the NID hadn't just put a link on the page with the thing's picture that said, "It Is HERE."
Those extra 20 minutes were going to cost somebody, Jack swore. Too bad he couldn't pin that one on Maybourne's tab. He really couldn't. Jack thought up and discarded a new way to do it every time he almost bounced off his seat and onto his ass on the long flight from Hanscom to Buffalo.
**
Taking the building itself wasn't a problem, even with Maybourne stowed back in the plane -- "No, no way in hell am I letting you in there," Jack had said with a glare -- and only the four of them to slide though the side door. The NID had a thing for warehouses, which was fine with Jack since they were always about as protected as his grandmother's house. He couldn't stop the sigh when they walked right in and, just by tracking the radiation, located the "basement," though. Yes, it made his life easier, but it hurt in a strange and distracting way to know that there were U.S. military officers out there who thought that hiding the location of the secret lab, base, whatever, was good enough to get the job done.
The only folks they found were scientist-types, which was an explanation. But given his own scientists, Jack didn't think it was much of an excuse.
Now, feet planted wide, Jack tapped his fingers on the butt of his gun and stared at the bright twisted metal braced in a more generic contraption on the table in the center of the room. He didn't look at the worry that was dragging at the corners of Carter's eyes.
"We can't just pull its plug."
"No, sir, it seems to have its own power source at this point."
"And you're going to tell me that smashing the thing won't help."
"I wouldn't recommend it." He felt Carter shift and quickly settle back in the same place. "From what I've been able to make of their notes, that would be like smashing a bomb: unleashing far more energy than what it's putting out now. In this form it has boundaries, rules that it's supposed to follow. If you were to--"
"Not a good idea, then."
"Uh, no."
Jack turned on his heel and headed back over to where Teal'c and Daniel were standing over the NID folks, weapons held casually but ready for another attempt they'd have to abort. He nudged Daniel aside and crouched down to face Mathison. And he was very careful not to yell.
"What the hell convinced you all it would be a good idea to turn on something you can't turn off?"
Mathison's hands twitched where they rested, clasped and bound in his lap. "We didn't."
Jack gestured toward Carter and the thing. "It's glowing. That's usually a sign of being on."
"We didn't turn. It. On," Mathison said slowly. One of the brains further down the line squirmed and Mathison's eyes cut his way before snapping back to Jack's. Jack raised his eyebrows, waiting. Mathison's mouth set in a bitter line. "It turned on."
That rocked Jack back on his heels. Daniel dropped down next to him and when he spoke his voice was caught between amazement and derision. "You built something, a device that you knew could cause unbelievable havoc, even when used correctly, and you built it in such a way that it turned itself on?"
"We didn't kn--"
"You 'didn't' a lot of things." Jack's hands tightened on his weapon and he shook his head with a snarl on his lips, stopping another protest. "I ought to pick your ass up and drop you in the middle of the next typhoon that hits Utah."
Blinking, Mathison shrank back against the wall.
"Sir?" Carter called from behind them, a bit urgently.
Even so, Jack held Mathison's eyes another moment, letting the man see all his other thoughts on all the other ways this mad little group should and could die from their own stupidity. When he was sure that message had been received, when Mathison's pupils were almost completely dilated with fear, Jack rose, grateful that his jaw was set too hard to even allow a wince as his knees ground against the swift movement.
A hand on his leg stopped him as he turned back to the table.
"Jack?"
He looked down at Daniel's concerned frown, felt the question heavy in Teal'c's gaze, and shook his head again. "No," he told them. "I wouldn't ask any other pilot to sacrifice themselves just to give me a moment's worth of happiness."
The frown didn't go away, but Daniel nodded and dropped his hand. While Jack watched, Daniel's head bent and he fitted his pistol back comfortably in his right hand, a small but significant switch from where it had been swinging loosely on one finger. Then, automatically, his focus having already switched back to the NID guys, Daniel checked that the safety was still engaged.
Jack clenched his teeth and sucked in the curse that wouldn't change anything. Carter summoned him again just then, even more anxiously than the first time, so he finally moved away from the scene at his feet to find out what she must have discovered that was going to make it that much harder to get this damn thing back to the mountain.
**
It wasn't just that they were scum who'd effectively destroyed Earth as everyone knew it, but Hammond wasn't pleased to have to house and feed four more people, not now. He didn't suggest that Jack leave them behind, either. They both knew they might need these four; for grunt work, if nothing else.
"Is there any way to at least get it to stop increasing the amount of power it's putting out?" Hammond asked, his eyes holding Jack's and not on the red phone that had already rung twice since Jack had knocked on the general's door.
"Carter's working on it, sir."
Hammond's mouth tightened. "But?"
Jack struggled against it for a moment, not wanting to admit a lack of faith in any member of his team, in any matter. But. "I'm not holding my breath. Not this time."
Leaning back in his chair, Hammond slowly nodded, his gaze falling finally to the phone. Jack took an unconscious step forward. That would be--
"Don't call them," he said. Kicking himself, as surprised at his protest as Hammond, he continued, "Not yet. Just...not yet."
Hammond let out a long sigh. "Evacuation plans have to continue. If Major Carter can't get that device to turn off, the president needs every second he can get." He shook his head. "I can't withhold any information from him at this point, as a subordinate or as a human being."
"I understand." Jack turned and started for the door. There was a reason he'd said to wait, though. Damn if he knew what it was but there was a reason. He turned back as Hammond was putting the handset to his ear. "Tell him there's still a chance, that we'll be working to make sure there's still a chance," Jack urged. They weren't going to give up.
Not making any attempt to mask his trepidation or determination, Hammond said, "He knows that, Jack."
**
Determined to help, not distract with needless concerns, Jack walked briskly into Carter's lab, rubbing his hands together. "Okay, boys and girls, hit me. What've we got?"
"Not a whole hell of a lot."
Daniel waved Jack over to the far side of the table where Daniel and Jacob seemed to have retreated. Carter was glaring at the weather thing, disgust marring the normally smooth lines of her face and some downright vile mutterings coming out of her mouth. Siler, a truly brave or foolhardy man, was still within arm's reach of both.
Jack winced slightly at the last two words to pass Carter's lips and sidestepped to slide in next to Daniel, who grimaced an agreement.
"This is a relatively recent development, but definitely not a good sign," Daniel confided.
"No," Jacob agreed.
"I take it she hasn't made any progress."
"Not as such," Daniel allowed.
"Duct. Tape." The mutter had turned into a growl now. "They used fucking duct tape."
"Right. That's enough of that." Jack planted both hands on the table and leaned forward. "Carter," he said, using his calmest command voice. Her head came up, eyes still narrowed dangerously. "I need an update," he told her, willing her to snap back into solider mode instead of staying lost in the enraged scientist.
Her jaw working, she took a deep breath. Then let it out, slowly. Jack wasn't entirely sure, because he was keeping his attention on his second, but Siler might have slumped a little in relief.
"I don't know what they were thinking, building something that they knew they couldn't get hold together without using," Carter paused, gritted her teeth, "duct tape. Like that was going to make it all okay."
Jack didn't try to raise all the things he'd seen her stick together over the years. Not a good idea, that. Plus, he'd never seen duct tape involved. "They did it," he decided to say. "It's done. Move on."
"Yes, sir."
There was a little muffled cough from beside him at her disgruntled tone, but Jack waved Jacob silent without breaking eye contact with Carter. She sighed.
"In addition to not being complete, they managed to...gum up the works." Shaking her head, she pointed to the light-colored specks of stickum that were visible in places where the tape was not. "It might have been possible to turn this off that the beginning, if they'd really tried instead of--" Jack cocked his head, letting impatience show, and she bit her lip. "At this point, I'm afraid to do anything further, sir."
He raised his eyebrows. "You're going to have to. Or Siler." The man took a quick small step back. Jack flicked a glance over at him, then focused on Carter again. "Or someone. But that thing is what is causing this and, therefore, that thing is going to have to be stopped." He straightened and spread his hands. "Not seeing any other option here."
Daniel cleared his throat. "We could always send it through the stargate."
"That's--"
Carter cut herself off. Jack frowned at her.
"Doable?"
"I...don't know, sir."
"Where would you send it?" Jacob asked. "Wherever it goes, it's going to cause just as many problems there as here. You really shouldn't go around mucking with other people's planets."
"Oh, you're one to talk," Jack told him.
"We don't screw with inhabited planets, Jack." Jacob paused. "With planets not inhabited by goa'uld," he allowed.
"We've got uninhabited planets," Daniel said. "Tons of them, with all the Ancient-added 'gates."
"Major?" Siler asked.
"What is it, sergeant?"
"It's...glowing again."
Everyone's attention snapped back to table as Siler backed up one big step.
"Shit." Jack grabbed Carter's arm when she automatically went for the thing, which had also started to hum in a low tone that was visibly shaking the table. "Do you really want to be touching it?" he asked, because of all the things they'd ever seen that didn't look good...
"It can't stay here, sir." She pulled free and pushed past Jacob and Daniel to go for a drawer in the table by the door. "We're going to have to risk the 'gate."
"And how do we get it there if we can't pick it up?" Daniel asked, an uneasy frown on his face.
Carter turned around with an extremely long pair of tongs in her hand. "You're going to go find me a cart. With wheels, please."
Daniel hurried out with Siler hard on his heels. Jack and Jacob looked at Carter's tongs, then exchanged glances. Jack shrugged and asked it.
"What do you normally do with those?"
**
Teal'c, still serving as best buddy, brought Maybourne with him to the control room.
"Is there a possibility that any type of harm, danger or damage could be done to anyone or anything in this facility should we put that device through the stargate?" Hammond asked Maybourne with a fierce frown, demanding an answer to his carefully-worded question.
Maybourne snorted out a laugh. "How am I supposed to know?"
"Your scientist guys are pretty much useless for anything except destroying the planet, but you always seem to have that one extra piece of information." Jack scowled at him. "No more hoarding, Maybourne. You know something, spit it out."
With a scowl of his own at Teal'c looming over his shoulder, Maybourne sighed. "I really don't know. I didn't even know for sure that they'd built that thing." He tried a smile. "You know me, Jack; I let others play with the science. I play with the system."
Jack turned away, dismissing the man. As he watched, the airmen in the gateroom below gave way to Carter, followed by Daniel and Jacob, and all a good foot away from the weathermaker on its little cart. Once they were positioned at the base of the ramp and the guards were repositioned around them -- although what good guns were going to do should something go haywire, Jack really didn't want to try to guess -- she turned to face the windows.
"Might as well start dialing, sir."
Jack chewed on the inside of his lip while Hammond gave the order. As the first chevron clicked on, he leaned forward to speak directly into the mic.
"So what happens if that thing starts acting up when the 'gate goes? Two unstable energy forces..."
He caught something like, "good of him to ask now," before Carter nodded to the others, who headed back out the door.
"No matter what we do, the amount of energy being put out by the device is increasing rapidly," she said as Daniel and Jacob came up the stairs to stand with everyone else. "Whether the power level reaches a catastrophic level now, or an hour from now, there isn't anything we can do, sir. We might as well try."
"So..." Jack turned the others. "Cross our fingers while she grabs it with the tongs and chucks it through the 'gate."
"Yeah, that's about it," Daniel said.
"Good plan."
Hammond stepped up to the mic and Jack gave way. "Good luck, major," Hammond said, in that voice that said he had all the trust in the world in her, even if there was a better than even chance that she was about to vaporize them. Good man. And a very good decision not to pass on the president's "last hope" comment. She knew. They all knew.
"Chevron five encoded."
Carter rolled her shoulders slightly and raised her chin, facing off with the 'gate. Jack leaned backward to look around Daniel. "You sure you've got nothing to add?" he asked Maybourne.
His eyes locked on the spinning 'gate, Maybourne shook his head, silent.
"Chevron six encoded."
Daniel pulled in a loud breath and came forward slightly onto his toes, like that was going to provide a better view. "Let's hope this works."
Teal'c stepped up beside them, also focused on the figure centered below. "We will find out."
Jack found his fingers had crossed on their own.
"Chevron seven...locked."
The 'gate went ka-woosh.
**
Selmak and Jacob had a beacon. All they had to do was activate it, and its signal would be picked up by any of the amplifiers drifting seemingly randomly around that section of the galaxy.
That was what Malek said to his host, reminding them both, after the High Council refused him access to a tel'tak despite his continued inability to successfully dial the Tau'ri stargate.
If Selmak wished assistance, he would notify them, they pronounced. The council made its ruling as a whole: Until that time, Anubis' return had thrown ages worth of truth and plans into upheaval on all sides -- further evidence that the goa'uld were not involved in this situation of the Tau'ri's, Malek heard from at least one portion of the chamber -- and there was no justification for diverting a functional ship to Earth if it was not needed.
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