• SPOILERS: Teeny mention of Meridian <
• SUMMARY: SG-1 heads to Canada after a Goa'uld ship crashes outside a small town. Takes place S7. <
• PG-13 [A] [D]

"Hurry up!" He called back over his shoulder as he made his way up the hill, the beam from the flashlight bouncing around on the road in his eagerness.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" His friend called out to him, slightly out of breath from running to keep up. "I mean it is dark." She said stupidly.

"Why? You afraid of the dark?" He teased meanly, while noting happily the weird looking shadow that was blinking strangely colored lights.

"Don’t be an ass Jake." His friend replied in the flat voice of annoyance, but stopped worrying aloud.

Now Jake slowed down, his attention fixed on the strange shape before him. It blinked at him. The road and trees around it were destroyed. Of course, he thought logically, with the simplicity of a ten year old. It fell from the sky so it caused all that. He moved forward, glancing over his shoulder briefly when his friend, Bet, came up behind him. Jake felt a thrill of fear in his chest and wondered if this wasn’t a bad idea. Already they were breaking the rules of going outside in the dark in the woods. If they were caught they would be in a lot of trouble.

"Okay, you’ve seen it. Can we go now?" Bet asked her voice small.

"Don’t be such a girl." He said indignantly.

"I am not being a girl!" Bet replied, recoiling from the insult.

"Yes you are."

"Are not."

"Are too."

"Not"

"Are"

"Not"

"Are"

"If you’re so brave than why don’t you go touch it?" Bet dared.

Jake sniffed, "I don’t feel like it."

"Scaredy cat." His friend said in a baby voice.

He glowered at her and turned stubbornly towards the looming shape. He took two steps forward and paused. He scanned the beam of the flashlight in front of him, making out the strange metallic skin that reminded him of the spaceships in the comic books he read. The ones that Dean Parker at school said were bullshit. Jake liked Dean Parker because Dean Parker always swore and Jake thought that was cool. In fact, until now, Jake would have said that Dean Parker was never wrong. But Jake felt a cold certainty that he was looking at a spaceship from one of his comic books.

His gut turned over and he thought he was going to throw-up. He glanced behind him and made out Bet’s shape, watching him. He took a deep breath, took another two steps, paused, then three more. He was so close he could see the thing that was blinking. One more step and he could touch it. He reached out and ran his hand down the blinking light bulb. As he did so he turned and shone the flashlight at Bet, his fear disappearing and a grin stretching across his face.

"There, see? I’m not afraid." His voice was full of pride.

Bet open her mouth to reply when suddenly there came a clicking from the ship. There was the sound of metal rubbing against metal when suddenly the doors pulled back. Bet screamed at Jake to get back, but Jake was too scared to move. Inside, the ship it was glowing. There was a man lying completely still.

"Jake, come on, let’s go! Let’s get your parents. Come on." Bet’s voice was shrill with pleading fear.

But Jake had just overcome his fear. Jake had touched the spaceship, and now there was a real live alien! It didn’t look like what he thought it would look like. It didn’t have big black bug eyes, or green skin. It looked human. This intensified Jake’s curiosity. He moved closer. The man looked dead. There was blood around his body. Surely dead aliens couldn’t possibly hurt him. He moved in for a closer look, flashlight limp at his side.

"Please Jake? Please?" Bet was scared but she refused to leave her friend, partly from fear of returning in the dark, and partly from some half formed sense of loyalty.

"Shut up, Bet." He said, moving in closer still. Did something just move? He was certain he had seen something move. Now he stood with his head just inside the spaceship.

"Jake, get away! Jake?"

He turned his head to the side and called back, "Shut-"

That was all he had time to get out before something jumped him and burrowed into his neck. He screamed in pain.

"Jake? Jake? JAKE?" Bet was in hysterics. She screamed his name. In the alien light she thought she saw something go into her friend’s neck. "JAKE! JAKE!" She couldn’t seem to say anything else. Suddenly he stopped screaming and laughed.

"Damn it, that’s not funny." She said to her laughing friend drawing closer to him. Something in her gut turned. Something wasn’t right.

The boy continued to laugh.

"You scared me you jerk! I should kick your ass for that!" Jake turned to her. "Come on, Jake. You’ve had your fun, let’s go."

"I am not Jake." The boy boomed.

Bet stopped in her tracks. His voice was different, but he had had his joke. This was probably some other trick.

"You’ve had your fun. Come on Jake. Let’s go, you really scared me." He stood staring at her and Bet had to fight to remain where she was. "I won’t tell your mom if we can just go home now. Please?" She blinked. Did his eyes just glow?

He came towards her and now her instincts kicked into full gear and a voice in the back of her mind spoke coldly to her.

She turned to run but Jake had always been much faster than her. Her only defense was a terrified scream. And then his hand closed around her throat.

He was still laughing.

---------------

General Hammond sat in the debriefing room, staring at his cup of coffee. He didn’t look up when he heard people filing into the room. There was light chatter as they took their seats, before silence fell and they waited for him to speak. He wondered where to begin. He wondered if these were the best people for the job. He wondered if there would be a loss of Allies when this mission was over.

"So, General, what’s up?" His second in command, Colonel Jack O’Neill, asked easily.

Hammond decided there would certainly be a loss of Allies.

Finally he looked up. "Yesterday, NASA recorded something entering into orbit." He glanced at the faces around the table. They were watching him intently.

"A Goa’uld mother ship?" Major Carter this time.

"No. It was too small to be a mother ship but at the same time too big to be typical space debris. At 0100 this morning, something crashed into the woods."

"So, a definite ship." O’Neill said. "Well, that’s easy to deal with. We just quarantine the area, see what’s up and then say one of ours’ has crashed. The folks from Area 51 can handle that."

Hammond remained quiet, and this time Dr. Daniel Jackson spoke up. "Unless it’s not that easy." The blue eyes searched the General’s face.

"What can’t be easy about it?" The colonel asked.

"The supposed crash site is in the woods, near a small town called South River."

"So?"

"Near the small Canadian town of South River."

Silence.

Then, "You’re kidding…Right Sir?" Jack looked incredulous.

"I’m afraid not Colonel, we all knew this was bound to happen."

"And you want us to fix it?" Daniel asked neutrally.

Hammond shook his head. "I don’t know that this problem can be fixed, but unfortunately someone does need to be sent over there. Major Davis has already been contacted and is on his way to see the Canadian government, but there are simply too many factors to ensure an easy solution. Canada has no idea of the existence of aliens, or rather had no idea. Now we don’t know just how much information the Canadian government will willingly tell us, or how they will handle it with their own populace. Davis is going to try and gain access to the ship itself. Should he gain access, he will need an expert on the technology, which applies to you Major Carter."

"Yes, Sir"

"As for dealing with diplomatic relations, and having more unofficial freedom, Dr. Jackson, you’ll be needed." The man nodded. "Colonel O’Neill, you will also be accompanying Dr. Jackson, and Major Carter." The General had no need to fill in the request for his 2IC’s accompaniment.

Hammond turned to Teal’c who had, as yet, not said anything. "Unfortunately Teal’c, as much as I think Carter will need your expertise, you have no identification. Sending you over the borders to our most trusted Ally is difficult given the circumstances. Hopefully, though, you will be able to join them later, if all goes well."

Hammond debated giving them a reminder on how to behave on Canadian soil. But then he looked at the Colonel’s face and decided that it would be a waste of energy. Even as he dismissed them, he said a silent prayer for Canada. Soon they would encounter SG-1 first hand.

-----------------------

Lieutenant Roberta Burns sighed heavily when she was called away from the crash site. So far, the day was not going well. Burns had never had a problem with her chosen career in the Canadian military. But that was before this very unexpected event – a veritable science fiction occurrence. Her commanding officer, Captain Hartley, expected her to be thrilled. It was of course a career making opportunity, a happenstance occurrence of a lifetime, but Burns personally didn’t care for surprises. She was a logical, rational woman; being assigned to deal with an illogical, inexplicable situation bothered her. Captain Hartley could kiss her ass as far as she was concerned; if he thought he was being gracious. Sharing the experience was no personal favour from her perspective.

And now she had to meet with members of the United States Air Force. What the hell the Air Force was doing with their sudden appearance was beyond her. She often wondered if something like this would be much of a surprise to the Americans. Besides, hadn’t they elected an alien as their president?

Enough thinking. Her job was to act on orders, she reminded herself as she shoved the critical thoughts from her mind, and expunged her personal opinions. Already she could imagine Hartley lecturing everyone on how to treat their guests. Hartley was a slime ball and probably didn’t care that the Americans were trying to gain another piece of control over their peaceful neighbours. Sometimes Roberta wondered when it would be Canada’s turn to win a tactical advantage.

The drive was pleasant. Wishing for company other than her bitter thoughts, Roberta decided to converse with the driver.

"How long have you been in the army, Sergeant?" She asked.

The Sergeant cast a sideways glance at her, "Couple of years, LT."

"Ever seen anything like this before?"

"Only in Independence Day, Ma’am."

Burns nodded. "What do you suppose the Air Force is doing here?"

Now the Sergeant gave her a considering look, "That a trick question, Ma’am?"

"No."

"In that case, I think they’re here to rob our asses, Ma’am."

Burns had to bite back a smile. She was glad to have found another soldier with similar sentiments. "What’s your name?"

"Sergeant Shirley Lans, Ma’am."

The car stopped; they had arrived at their base of operations, the South River town hall. She slipped out of the seat of the car.

"Hopefully I’ll be seeing you again Sergeant."

The Sergeant grinned, gave a quick salute and drove away along the bumpy country roads, back towards the crash.

With a longing look at the woman’s departing back, Burns forced herself to walk to the doors and pull them open with a business like briskness. Two privates saluted her. She returned the salutes and headed towards the main room when a voice called out to her.

"You’re late, Lieutenant."

She stiffened slightly before turning, and giving Captain Hartley the best god-damned salute he could ever have seen.

"Sir! I came as soon as I could, sir" bastard she finished silently.

"Well, not much that can be done now. Since we’re already late, we might as well go in."

He motioned with his large hand for her to pull open the door. When she did he brushed by her and into the room.

She followed after him, mentally imagining hurting her CO seriously. The room was not very large. There were rows of seats that led up to an elevated podium. Two benches and a table had been arranged at the front. It reminded her of Stephen King’s Castle Rock town hall. Certainly the entire situation was very Stephen King.

Or Dean Koontz, she thought.

Seated at the podium were four people, three men, and one woman. Two of the men and the woman were dressed neatly in formal blue uniforms. The third was dressed smartly in a suit and tie. Two briefcases were on the table. Burns wondered if the civilian was some sort of politician, but somehow she doubted they would send a politician into this situation. Most likely the politician was up in Ottawa talking to the Prime Minister.

On the other bench was General Miles, the man in charge of their current operation. She stepped up beside Captain Hartley and saluted smartly. The man returned the salute and they took their seats.

Now she was able to study each of the Americans. The first one, the one who was standing up to speak seemed used to /// having his way in these sorts of situations. He stood with a confident, yet appropriately humble air, as though he was ready to fight for access to the site but would, as it were, turn and call the president at the first sign of Canada having any kind of independence from their powerful neighbor.

"As you know, one of our government officials is busy talking to your Prime Minister." He said very diplomatically: "We wish to work with you on your current situation in exchange for any technology that may become available."

The General spoke, "You sound as though you have worked in a situation of this magnitude before. You make it seem as though you would be helping us. Allow me to ask you a question, Major Davis. How come the American government suddenly cares about what lands in our country?"

Burns decided she liked General Miles.

The man next to Davis was older, his hair graying. His face was unreadable, but she noticed how he played with his pen, as though he was bored with the proceedings. She doubted he would be an easy man to get along with. He glanced at her, as though he had felt her watching him. She met his gaze. After a minute he gave an almost imperceptible nod as if to say, okay we’ll call it a draw, and then he rolled his eyes comically and gave a brief flicker of a smile. She nodded in return.

"I’m not really free to discuss what the American government does know…"

"But I’m supposed to allow you to see our own classified operations? Major Davis, I never did believe in covering things up. To tell the truth, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But now I have to, and unless your government feels it’s time to give some of their own information, this will remain classified to you and your country."

The woman seemed interested in the conversation. Her blue eyes watched each man as they spoke. Burns assumed the woman to be intelligent. She had that spark, as they say.

"Your government may change its mind."

The civilian was young. She could see his emotions passing over his face as the exchange slowly wound itself to a dead end. She wondered what a man like him would be doing in this situation. She honestly doubted that someone like him would have anything to do with the military, though she supposed anything was possible.

"By bullying? Major Davis, I don’t know how much you know about the Canadian government but I can tell you right now from experience, it’s incredibly hard to get the Canadian government to do anything you want it to do. Just ask the populace."

Burns tried to hide a grin, but it slid out anyway. She noticed that the Americans also seemed surprised, though the older man was grinning and she could see the glint of humor in his eye.

"Sir…"

"No, this conversation won’t change much, especially not until I get my orders. You’re lucky you were allowed this far. You’re welcome to stick around the town, but I guarantee you that this town is as far as you will go unless I say otherwise."

The General stood up. Burns and Hartley also jumped to their feet and saluted. He returned the salute and started to leave when the civilian spoke.

"Um, sorry if this seems out of place, but were any lives lost?" He was frowning with his head cocked to the side.

"Why do you want to know?"

"No reason…"

"Then don’t start asking about the whole classification thing." Then the General left.

They packed up to leave. Roberta was glad to pull herself from the grumbling and morally indignant side of Hartley. She burst out into the fresh air with a smile. She figured she owed the General a mental apology. She honestly expected him to be, well, to be a general.

"Your General’s something to be proud of. It takes a lot to piss Davis off." She whirled and found the older man beside her.

"Yeah, too bad the rest of the country isn’t like him."

"Ah, so you’re not a firm believer in the American dream."

"I’m not American." This came out cool.

"What’s your name?"

"Lieutenant Roberta Burns." She didn’t look at him.

"Colonel Jack O’Neill."

She jumped a little. Go figure, she thought. A colonel. At the rate this day was going she was lucky he wasn’t the president himself.

"Sorry, Sir."

"Don’t worry about it; you’re not American."

He smiled and shook his head at her before walking away.

-----------------------

Daniel watched Jack come back inside. Davis was on the phone with General Hammond, informing him of the lack of progress. Unfortunately, in Daniel’s opinion, this was not the most important problem at hand.

"Suppose the aliens dead?" He asked.

"Who knows?" Sam muttered. "I wish we could have asked him whether they found a body in the ship."

"Don’t beat yourself up over it, Major."

"Not as though it would make a difference." Daniel looked at his friends. "If it were Goa’uld it could have jumped hosts."

"Good thing this place is quarantined. Nobody allowed in, and nobody out. Except, of course, us."

They remained silent a moment. Daniel could hear Davis’s murmured telephone conversation. Each of them considered the implication of a Goa’uld in the vicinity. Then Davis hung up the phone and came over to them.

"I’ve informed General Hammond of the situation and he told you guys to keep a look out."

"What about you?"

"I’m going to Ottawa. They’re sending a chopper for me to bring me to Toronto, then I ride the red-eye to the capital city."

Jack nodded, "Well, in that case, I think we deserve some food."

"I wonder if Canadian military food is better than American." Daniel pondered aloud.

"I didn’t know the Canadian military could afford food." Jack answered.

--------------------------

Hartley shook his head over the corpse that lay on the gurney in the tent. Beside him stood Burns. If she had to describe his face, it was one of disgust. Hartley had a vision. It was a vision of being a General. It was a vision of being the best. It was a vision of everything being as it should be, and this alien was not as it should be. The alien looked normal. It was human. The DNA tests hadn’t come back yet, so she supposed he couldn’t really judge on appearance.

His eyes raked over the other gurneys and Hartley found himself wondering whether there was a connection between the brutal murders in the nearby cottage or whether it was some sort of freak occurrence. Hartley was no fool. It was most certainly connected.

"Lieutenant, how do the dead kill?"

"What, Sir?"

"You mean pardon. How do the dead kill?"

She looked at him, her face expressionless. "I don’t know, Sir."

"Well, it’s something we should start figuring out."

---------------------------

When the phone call came, Hammond was not surprised. He knew that it was the only honest resolution to the situation. The Canadians were not aware of the danger; nor were they stupid when it came to something this earth shattering. Besides, hadn’t the Russians also wanted answers?

The phone rang and Hammond answered. "Yes, Mr. President, I think it’s the only way."

Hammond hung up, then picked it up again, and dialed. He spoke only one sentence to Major Davis.

"You have been given permission."

In Ottawa, Davis slowly hung up the phone and moved with slow purpose towards the closed doors at the end of the hall.

"Actually, I have just been authorized by my government to trade more information for access to your crash site." Davis said when he reentered the office. All eyes were upon him, and Davis wondered how long it would take him to explain.

-----------------------------

Private Riley glanced up at the sky. The stars were clear without the moon to dim them. There was a chill in the air, and Riley figured at one point more storm clouds would move in. He hoped that the entire mess would be cleared up by then. Then he could return home to his wife and their young son. He smiled at the thought of his family. He loved them so much.

There was a rustle in the bushes. Riley raised his gun and wished that he had been given the option of a companion in his appointed watch position. He moved forwards, training the muzzle of his weapon on the now still foliage. Just a rabbit, he told himself. That, or the wind.

He thought of his wife and her courage. She had always been braver than him. She was the one who watched all the scary movies. He was always so proud of her. He wanted her to feel the same way about him. With a deep breath, he moved quickly and jabbed the gunpoint into the bush. There was one breath taking instant when nothing happened, and then he heard the angry chatter of a chipmunk. He laughed at himself.

A sound came from behind him and he whirled again, raising his gun, when he noticed the beam of the flashlight.

"Don’t point your weapon at me, Private." Said a familiar voice.

Riley sighed, "Sorry Sir." He lowered his weapon.

"How are things looking out here?"

"All clear, Sir. Just some curious critters." He smiled as he said that, thinking of his scare.

"You’re shift will be done soon."

"Yeah, a half hour, I think, Sir."

The man seemed about to speak when something lunged at him. Riley jumped as the man went down, a smaller form on top of him. His superior gave a cry of surprise, but the struggle, as far as the private could tell, was brief. He didn’t have much time to pull the figure off his superior before it suddenly went limp.

"Jesus, Sir. You okay?" He continued to hold the limp attacker in his arms in case it suddenly got its second wind.

His superior lay on the ground a little longer, and Riley was worried that the man was going into shock or had been seriously injured. Then he spoke.

"Just stunned."

Riley nodded and the other reached for the flashlight, shining it on the attacker’s face.

"My God! It’s just a kid!" Riley felt slightly sick as he considered the limp form he was holding. Quickly he felt for a pulse. There wasn’t one.

"Gonna have to bring him to the morgue." The private said stupidly.

"Don’t worry, Private. I’ll do that. You just make sure this doesn’t happen again."

Riley handed over the boy. He watched the other walk away, the body swung over his shoulder. He wondered how the boy had managed to evade their sweep of the area. He wondered if there would be repercussions about this attack. If the Americans found out, there would be a lot of criticism.

He blocked his mind of all thoughts, and focused on the being more alert, glancing over his shoulder when he thought he heard laughter.

---------------------------

"I suppose you’re superiors are happy that you’ve managed to gain access." General Miles frowned at Colonel O’Neill.

"Hey, what can I say?"

"Besides that you’re happy when you get your own way?"

O’Neill frowned, "Touché"

Jack cast a sideways glance at a grinning Daniel. Of course the archeologist had managed to hit it off with the Canadian General. They did after all have the same love of coffee and a couple of languages between them. With the two in the same room, Jack couldn’t help but think that he was being picked on.

"Major Carter, I hear you are quite the intellect."

"Well, I wouldn’t say that, Sir…" Carter said modestly.

"Carter is one of the most brilliant people in the United States Air Force." O’Neill said, showing his pride.

Carter’s eyes widened at the praise, the General laughed at this reaction. Beside him, Captain Hartley didn’t blink. Jack didn’t like the Captain. He thought he was a Prick with a capital ‘P’.

"Um, did you find any markings on the, ah, ship? Similar to hieroglyphs." Daniel directed the question at the Captain.

"Yes, we did." Hartley said simply.

"Unfortunately, most of us are a little rusty on our hieroglyphs." The General quipped.

A snort of laughter came from the young civilian. They rode the rest of the way in companionable silence. The road bumped along at a rather suicidal speed, making Jack wonder if the driver was looking for a quick end. Branches scratched along the older military truck.

When they arrived they hopped out of the truck, one after another. The air was incredibly fresh. The trees were thick and green around the clearing and road. A lake sparkled in the sunlight, rippling with the chilly breeze. A single sturdy structure stood before the lake. It was sectioned off, a sentry posted at the side door. To the left of the building was a white tent with two sentries standing guard. Men and women came and went. There was a road that had been purposely blocked heading off down a hill to the left. Jeeps headed down the road, some returning and heading back into town. If they looked closely, they could make out small buildings, which were obviously summer cottages.

The General motioned them to a jeep. Captain Hartley at first got in next to the General, but he was quickly reassigned to another jeep. They drove down the bumpy hill then up an even steeper one that leveled off slightly at the top.

The crash itself became visible from the bottom of the steeper hill. It was a large, looming bruise against the blue sky. Soldiers snapped pictures and made notes and measurements around it. It stuck out of the earth like a pencil stuck diagonally into play-dough. The inside glowed dimly in the bright sunlight, and steam rose out its back and into the sky. Around the area were more of the white tents, and some people in biohazard suits. The general stopped the jeep in front of one of these tents.

"One moment." He told them and went inside. When he came back out he was followed by the Lieutenant SG-1 had seen the day before.

She approached them, gave them the once over before giving a swift salute to the General and motioning for the Americans to follow her. She led them towards another tent, away from the ship.

"Um, aren’t we supposed to be looking at the ship?" Daniel asked, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb.

"You saw it, didn’t you?" She asked.

"Well, we need to study it up close in order to be certain-" Carter started.

Burns held up a hand. "With all due respect Ma’am, I don’t think it matters what you need to do. All that matters are my orders, which are to show you what we gathered first."

Inside the tent were three tables, each covered with foreign artifacts. Burns motioned for the only man in the tent to come over to them.

"This is Private Tannis. He’s the closest thing we’ve got to a technology expert, for this situation."

Daniel blinked, "Shouldn’t you have more experts? I mean, this is alien technology you’re dealing with."

"Thank you for informing me. I hadn’t realized that." Came the sarcastic reply. "Tannis, tell them what you’ve found." She gestured vaguely with her hand.

"Sure thing, Ma’am" Tannis walked them over to one table. There were several familiar objects on it: a zat gun, a pain stick, a ribbon device.

Tannis picked up the zat gun. "Well, Sirs, and, ah, Ma’am," He nodded at Carter, a small blush creeping into his ugly, pig- like face. "From what I’ve actually been able to work out, I believe this to be a weapon of some sorts." He activated the gun, and pointed at the ground. "It gives out a single burst of electrical energy but not enough to kill-"

"Oh, no," O’Neill supplied. "That happens on the second shot. Third disintegrates. Very nasty death."

Burns glowered at him. "Well, Colonel, since you and your team seem to know what these things are already. Why don’t you tell us?"

"Carter! You’re good at this."

Carter came forward and pointed at some of the objects on the table, "That’s a torture device, it causes extreme pain, but doesn’t cause any lasting physical damage." Carter pointed to a familiar twirling golden object, "That’s what we call a ribbon device. It can only be used by some, ah,"

"Special." Daniel supplied.

"Yes, special people. A memory device…" Carter trailed off.

"Well, that’s just great!" Burns grumbled. "Sorry about this, Private. I didn’t mean for you to be made a fool of. Looks like it was a waste of your time."

"No prob, LT. We all suspected something like this would happen." Tannis shrugged.

"Umm, Private Tannis. There are some things here that I don’t recognize. If you want, I could work with you on them." Carter looked at the man, feeling ashamed at how quickly all his work had been made for nothing.

Tannis looked surprised at the offer of help. "LT, yah think the General would let her?"

Burns shrugged. "They’re here to help apparently. Well, why don’t you stay here, Ma’am? I’ll give the others the all expense paid tour."

They exited the tent, leaving the two scientists to pour over a piece of equipment with unseemly excitement.

On their way to the site, a disheveled soldier came running up to Burns.

"Hey, LT, is it true? The Americans are allowed to see the site?"

"Yeah, sergeant, it’s true."

The sergeant grinned, saluted and went running back towards a group of men calling: "Alright, you guys pay up. Looks like you shouldn’t put so much faith in your government."

"I take it we’re not well liked." Daniel muttered to Jack, who simply shrugged.

The ship’s metal was cool and smooth. The hieroglyphs were near the door. It wasn’t long before Daniel was almost completely ensconced in rough translations, muttering to himself. A couple of nearby soldiers taking measurements, stopped to look at him oddly.

Jack drew away somewhat, walking around the ship, occasionally stopping to study the land, or glance up at the sky.

"Lieutenant Burns?" She looked up from the ground and looked at Daniel.

"Yeah?"

"Was it empty when it crashed? I mean, the doors are open, so…" He trailed off.

"Nope Mr. Jackson, but what was inside was as dead as a doornail."

"It’s doctor."

"What?"

"Doctor Jackson."

"Of what?"

"Archeology, and linguistics. So the thing inside…It was dead?"

"That’s what I said."

"Can I see the body?"

She frowned at him. "It’s no mummy, Doctor."

"Do you still have it?"

"We’re keeping it in town where we can keep it preserved."

"Did you run any tests on it?"

"Yeah, but some of the results haven’t come back yet." She watched him frown and look back at the ship.

"How quickly did you arrive? Could anybody have come in contact before you?" Jack spoke from behind her.

She turned to look at him, considering the question. "I was called here later." She started slowly. "As far as I’m aware, we arrive as quickly as possible once it was spotted."

Daniel and Jack exchanged a look before Jack spoke again, "Is that the best guess you can give, or can you give something a little more…" He trailed off.

She nodded. "In my personal opinion we did not arrive here in time to ensure full isolation of the ship itself." She dropped her voice lower. "The people in the cottage were relatively close. We were lucky that this was a slow week for cottage country. Anyway, if I were to give a very personal opinion, I would say that something came in contact with the ship. Be it human or animal."

Jack stared at her hard, "Why would you say that?"

"Because I don’t think there was enough damage to open the doors. I’m no scientist, Sir, but the thing is nearly intact. Why would the door magically open?"

Daniel watched as Burns turned away, staring at nothing, obviously considering whether she had been in the right to admit her suspicions.

"We’re going to have to get Carter to look at the body, and possibly call in one of our own for a closer look."

"That’s gonna take some authorization from the General, Sir. And it might take some time." Burns answered.

Jack didn’t reply.

----------------------------

Burns entered the General’s make shift office, hesitating slightly before his desk until he motioned her to take a seat. She looked at the tall slender man with his hard face and large nose. She had never actually talked directly to a General and found it odd that the Captain seemed continuously absent.

"So, Lieutenant, they say they want to see the body." He spoke curiously.

"Yes, Sir."

"I trust you told them that it would take time."

"Yes, Sir."

"They seem very adamant about that body. I wonder what they know and what we’re missing."

"Well, didn’t the information come from Parliament yet, Sir?" She asked.

"No, it didn’t. Which worries me." He paused. "They wanted to know who was first on scene at the site. Did they ask you?"

"I told them that I arrived later Sir."

"Ah, but you have your suspicions, don’t you Lieutenant?"

Burns remained silent.

"Do you ever wonder how you came to be here, Lieutenant?"

Burns nodded, but remained silent.

"There were a couple of higher ranking officers that could have been brought in on short notice."

"Then why was I chosen?" She asked tiredly, nodding when he offered a shot of brandy from a nearly empty bottle.

"I don’t know, Lieutenant. Must have been a glitch in the system."

She laughed. "Do you suppose they have an alternate agenda, Sir?"

"I don’t know, but it’s something I wouldn’t mind finding out." He looked at her as she downed the shot in one gulp.

"I suppose I’m the one for the job?"

"Why, you don’t want it?"

"What about Captain Hartley, Sir?"

He snorted. "That guy is just a little too eager to be the perfect soldier. He has too much attitude to do anything subtly."

"I’m on the job, Sir." She said, and, with a quick salute, left the office.

------------------------------------

Carter and Daniel watched Jack slip away into the darkness. Briefly, Carter had considered going with him, but she knew that it would be better for the Colonel to do an unofficial recon on his own. Daniel nursed a cup of coffee.

"Private Tannis was really smart, but still young." Carter said to Daniel.

"He seemed nice." Daniel admitted.

Carter sighed. "You can say I’ve been hanging around the colonel too much, but do you think they’re being a bit too lenient? I’m not even sure that any information given to the government could reach here this quickly."

"Doesn’t a soldier follow orders? Not ask questions?"

Carter shrugged. "You would think the General would find some way to delay us."

Daniel shook his head.

Behind them, standing in the open with his hand hanging over his sidearm, Hartley watched them.

------------------------------------

The next day, the sun rose high in the sky giving the illusion of a hot summer day. Hartley stood outside breathing in the fresh air, lost in his private thoughts.

"Sir!" The voice crackled over the radio attached to Captain Hartley’s chest, startling him.

"What is it?" He asked in his oddly prim voice.

"We have another body."

Hartley stiffened at the news. It meant one of two things: one that they had found the missing son of the dead family, or, two, that they had found their missing soldier.

"Do you know who it is?"

"A boy, Sir."

"Any sign of Private Riley?"

"None, Sir."

"Keep looking, over and out."

Hartley glanced over to where the civilian and American Colonel were deep in discussion. He figured it wouldn’t be long before they learned about the discovery. The General would tell them.

-----------------------------

Jack nodded at Daniel’s theory. It was a good one, given the limited information they obtained. Now they stood near the cottage, talking, while keeping an eye on the activities around them. The Canadians did not seem to be very forthcoming with information. Hell, they’re almost as good as we are with the Russians, Jack thought wryly.

"So if the boy saw the thing crash and went to investigate as boys do…"

"And accidentally opened the pod with a dying host…"

"Then it probably jumped into him." Jack finished.

Daniel frowned. "He might have been the one to kill the family."

"But why would a Goa’uld kill the kid’s family?"

"Why do they imitate Gods?" Daniel said absently. "But even if he did slaughter them in their sleep, why would he remain in the body of a boy? You’d think he would want a stronger host. One that could get him somewhere."

Jack sighed. "Unless he jumped into somebody else and then killed the family."

"But who?" Daniel leaned against the porch of the building, and pushed up his glasses with one hand. Then he looked hard at Jack. "You mean…"

"Yeah. I think one of our Allies here may think he’s God." Jack nodded in affirmation.

"Okay, but why hasn’t he made any move? I mean, usually they’re pretty cocky."

"Unless they’ve learned information that may be valuable."

"Like training in subtlety." The archeologist seemed to perk up at that revelation.

"Or soldier training." Jack said with an odd look in Daniel’s direction.

----------------------------

Sergeant Shirley Lans made her way through the maze of tents. Ever since hearing her grandfather’s stories of the Canadian Forces in World War II, she had always dreamed of joining the army. Despite no longer being a military power, though currently helping in Afghanistan, Lans liked her job. But never would she have imagined being involved in something of this magnitude.

Now she stuck her head into the last tent on her route and spied the lone figure of Private Tannis, checking over a list, pen poised, a large frown on his face.

"Something the matter, Tannis?"

He looked up at her, startled. Then he smiled warmly and said in his gruff but pleasant voice, "Hey Sarge. No, nothing." He paused.

"But?"

"Well, I can’t seem to locate the zat gun. Or the ribbon device."

She stared at him blankly.

"Two of the alien weapons." He elaborated.

"Oh." She came further into the tent, her eyes running over the numbered items, lined up neatly in rows on each table. "Is it possible you didn’t stick them on the other tables? Or did they fall down?"

"I was just about to check."

Together, they searched through the other items, under the table, and even out around the tent.

Shirley shook her head. "What was the last thing you did with them?"

"Major Carter and I just finished tagging them an hour or so ago." His voice was full of worry.

"What happened after you finished tagging them?" The sergeant’s voice was hard, proclaiming strictly business.

"Major Carter said she was gonna go talk to her CO. I said okay. A couple of minutes later she called me. I stepped out for a minute and she asked me whether I had noticed any strange flashes from the ship because she thought she had just seen one." Tannis shrugged his shoulders. "I came right back inside after that. I spent sometime looking over a couple of items, before I noticed that some were missing. Then you came in, Ma’am."

Shirley nodded. "You stay here, I’m going to talk to the LT."

"What were you coming here to ask me?"

"Doesn’t matter now. I’ll send someone over."

She left the tent and moved at a quick jog over the terrain, stopping long enough to send over a dazed looking private to watch the tent. She found the Lieutenant speaking to two soldiers, and motioning to the ship.

"Ma’am!" Lans saluted.

"What is it?"

"Two pieces of alien technology are missing."

"Fuck!" Burns muttered.

"That’s an understatement, Ma’am."

Burns turned away from the two soldiers who quickly cleared the area. She started towards a nearby jeep, changed her mind and turned back to the waiting Sergeant.

"I’m going to radio the General. Were the Americans involved?"

Shirley shrugged. "It’s possible, LT. The Major called Tannis outside for a minute to ask him a question."

"You go round them up. Tell’em the General wants a word. Drive them yourself. I’ll get Tannis and meet you there." She thought a moment. "Is there someone watching the tent?"

"There is now."

The Lieutenant turned, heading back to the tent to get Tannis. Without another word, Shirley hopped into the jeep and started up towards the cottage. When she reached the top, she scanned the crowd. Slowly she dismounted, eyes still searching. She cocked her head when she heard the lieutenant’s jeep go speeding by.

She spotted the civilian, carrying a notepad, and making his way towards the road. She moved forward and intercepted him. To an outside observer, the hand she placed on his arm might have looked like a friendly gesture.

"Where’s the rest of your team?" Her voice was low and emotionless.

Daniel stared at her for a moment before replying. "Colonel O’Neill is talking to your Captain. Major Carter is heading back to help Private Tannis."

Lans withdrew her hand and grabbed her radio. "Wells, did the American Major go by you?"

"No Ma’am."

"When or if you see her, accompany her to Captain Hartley’s operations tent."

"Yes Sarge."

Daniel watched the woman flick the radio channel on her radio. "Sir!"

"Yes?"

"Is Colonel O’Neill with you?"

"Yes, yes he is."

She nodded as though he could see her.

"I’m going to be arriving with their civilian-"

"Dr. Jackson." Daniel supplied, but she ignored him.

"We think they may be involved in the theft of several pieces of alien technology."

Daniel stepped forward indignantly. "That’s preposterous!"

"I’ll look for you Sergeant."

Shirley examined the man-Dr. Jackson, she reminded herself. She never would have taken him for stealing.

She walked at his arm, leading him firmly over to the tent. She glanced briefly behind her and was pleased to notice Private Wells leading an animatedly objecting Major. Then all hell broke loose.

----------------------------------

At the crash site, an unfortunate soldier became aware of a high-pitched whine. At first it had been almost unnoticeable - something that a person only became conscious of in a moment of overwhelming silence. Then it had gotten steadily louder and he went to investigate. The whine seemed to be coming from near the open entry of the ship. Upon closer investigation, he noticed that there was a red blinking light that seemed to be emitting the sound. His last conscious thought was,

In the movies, they always tell you not to push the red button,

Then the ship exploded in his face.

-------------------------

The explosion moved outwards in a ball of flame, engulfing most of the surrounding area. It rushed down the steep hill and through the trees, burning the tents. Soldiers attempted to flee the fire, but the force of the explosion knocked most on their faces.

Shirley pushed herself up from where the explosion had knocked her down. To her left, Daniel was slowly pushing himself up. She threw her glance around the scene, noting unconsciously the burning forest. Then something landed next to her, nearly taking off her arm.

"TAKE COVER!" She screamed. Beside her, the civilian rolled over next to her as another piece of foreign metal landed where he had fallen. She pushed herself to her feet, hand going immediately for her radio, even as she grabbed Jackson with her other hand, mouth shouting orders.

"All units! We’re in need of assistance! Now! The ship exploded- Wells! Get to cover! Head to the Captain’s tent! You! Get some water for that fire!"

She ducked her head as something whizzed by her. Beside her Daniel ran. Something exploded in front of them and they tumbled backwards.

--------------------------

When the explosion came, Jack shoved Captain Hartley to the ground, diving over the strategy table to do it. In the next instant, he was up again, running out of the tent and into turmoil. A large forest fire made the air unbelievably hot and stifling. Each breath of air was full of smoke. He saw Daniel and a female soldier take a backwards tumble as shrapnel fell in their path. For a horrifying moment he thought that both of them had been obliterated, smashed beneath the large object. Then both of them struggled into a standing position. Then the woman was once again moving towards him. His eyes searched for the other member of his team once he had acknowledged the safety of the archeologist. He remembered Carter’s parting words:

He had cut her off. Now as he ran forwards, eyes searching the crowd even as Daniel came up beside him, he wished he had let her finish her sentence. But he could see no sign of Carter.

-------------------------------

Burns had made good ground. She had decided that seeing the General in person to discuss the matter was best. It prevented any possibility of miscommunication. When she heard the explosion, she had been heading down the first paved road before the turn onto Main Street. It sounded odd. It could have been a gunshot nearby, echoing through the woods, except that suddenly there was a scream of fleeing birds. Tannis gave a gasp of surprise.

"What is it?" She asked, not willing to take her eyes off the road or stop the vehicle, but wishing just the same to know what had happened.

"I don’t know, but I think that’s smoke!" His voice was distant.

She slammed on the breaks, and turned in her seat. What she saw was a thick, black cloud rising up in the distance.

"What is it with Americans and mass destruction?" She asked no one in particular before pushing her foot hard on the gas pedal.

"Shouldn’t we be going back?" Tannis asked.

"They don’t need two more soldiers, what they need is the whole damn fire brigade and no way could we contact them from there."

-------------------------

Teal’c had been spending much of his time pacing the SGC. He went from top to bottom, entering each room. He barely spoke to any one; or rather nobody dared speak to him. Teal’c was a terrifying figure from the beginning; a large looming statue with arms that looked like they could tear a man limb from limb, if provoked. Now, since the departure of SG-1, he had been in an endless bad mood. The first to figure this out had been an unfortunate young cadet who had been looking for the Jaffa to help with some translations. He had walked in on the meditating alien, accidentally knocked over a candle, and managed to burn the man’s hand. The normally controlled alien had consequently snapped and the terrified cadet, in a surprise twist of fate, managed to escape with only a few bruises. Teal’c had been lectured by General Hammond, who understood the stress the Jaffa was under. Thereafter, the entire SGC was informed not to bother the Jaffa, for their own personal safety.

Now Teal’c made his way to the debriefing room. He pulled open the door and was surprised to find the lights off and Hammond sitting in one of the chairs, watching the screen. Or rather, watching television. When the General heard him enter, he turned and gestured for Teal’c to take a seat.

On the screen, a balding man spoke in a serious voice, "We interrupt this program with important news. Today at approximately three o’clock p.m., an explosion occurred just outside of the small northern Ontario town, South River. Here’s (blank), live on the scene."

The image changed to a woman holding a microphone, standing in front of a barricade. Behind her, other reporters faced other cameras.

"I’m here, just outside the small northern town of South River in the county of North Bay. Two days ago this small town was evacuated and the area quarantined for an unspecified reason that hinted at possible contaminates, possibly from a meteor spotted falling in this vicinity. Now a large forest fire has been sighted, suggested by some to be the result of a large explosion. Planes are just now responding to calls. No one is being allowed into the area, not even into town -"

Hammond clicked off the broadcast, and turned on the lights. He faced Teal’c.

"I believe your presence may be required at the site. I have made a special request of the president and Prime Minister to allow you into Canada. You will be allowed into the town. You leave in one hour."

Teal’c nodded, secretly pleased at being allowed to follow his friends.

--------------------------

"Carter!"

Carter groaned. She didn’t want to hear the insistent voice. She wanted to go back to sleep.

"Carter! You have to wake up now!" The voice repeated sternly.

"Just five more minutes, Dad." She muttered.

Another voice snickered. "Did she just call you-"

"Shut up!" The first voice replied. "Help me get her up."

Carter felt herself being lifted. Finally she opened her eyes and blinked uncertainly at the two men attempting to pull her away from the spreading fire.

"Sir?" She asked, still feeling confused.

"Oh, look who’s awake." Came the dry remark.

They lowered her down onto the ground. She stood for a moment before stumbling forwards, stopped by Daniel before she could hit the ground. Then they started making their way forwards. Jack noted that some of the soldiers were desperately trying to pull some badly burned victims that had survived the initial explosion to safety.

They made their way towards where Hartley’s tent had been. The sergeant who had been accompanying Daniel was speaking quickly to the Captain.

"Sir, Lieutenant Burns is calling for fire fighters. They should be here soon."

Hartley didn’t respond.

"Sir, we’ve gotta get out of here. The force of that water’ll kill us."

"Been dead before, but didn’t like it much." Daniel said conversationally.

Jack looked at the Captain, and made a quick decision. "Sergeant! Tell those that are still able to move on their own to get on the jeeps or start in towards town."

"But, Sir, the wounded-"

Jack shook his head. "Most of ‘em won’t survive the trip to the town."

He thought for a moment that she was going to argue with him, but instead she simply saluted and ran off, shouting the orders as she went.

"Captain, aren’t you going to do something?" Daniel asked, as calmly as he could, still holding Carter up with one arm.

He nodded slowly, and started off towards some downed men, ignoring the three Americans.

"Come on." Jack said and started moving them away towards the road.

"Shouldn’t we be helping them?" Daniel’s voice was full of concern.

"Look, there’s not much that can be done. Most of them are dead already."

------------------------

Burns watched as the planes came swooping down. They looked like awkward swans. Then a solid wall of water dropped from their bottoms. She wondered if she had given them enough time. Not that it mattered, she figured. Most of them would have been killed in an explosion of that magnitude.

She looked briefly over the horizon on the other side. She was expecting an incoming helicopter, carrying another American, or something. She had been the one to take the message. She hadn’t been able to locate the General. She figured he was talking to reporters. Footsteps came up behind her. She turned and found Tannis standing with a folder of papers under his arms.

"The Doc wants to see you LT, or at least the one in charge." He left the remark open for interpretation. She nodded and followed him over the paved road, walking by a closed convenience store, and deserted chip stand. The temporary morgue was in fact an ice cream truck. You’re tax dollars at work, she thought and chuckled. She imagined that the Americans would have had their own special truck for such cases. But this wasn’t the United States. This was Canada, and as any Canadian knew, not very much involving the military happened here. Now she entered the nearby building, the one that had recently been the post office. The Doctor looked up as they entered.

"Where’s the General?" The man asked.

"Don’t know."

"Captain Hartley?"

"Currently unavailable."

"Oh."

"Oh."

There was a pause. Burns felt her impatience rising. Did the man have something to say or not?

"Well?"

He blinked owlishly. "Well what? What? Oh! Right! Well!" He turned and motioned her to follow him over to an empty counter that had a laptop set up on it. "We got the DNA results and blood tests back." He showed her the screen that had what she considered to be nothing but a jumble of scientific words.

"Can you just tell me?" She sighed.

"Oh. Oh! Okay." Burns rolled her eyes. She was definitely taking a vacation after this. "The blood is from our traveling friend. According to the tests, he is human-"

"Completely and utterly?"

"Yes Ma’am." He replied. "Except that he had an unidentifiable toxin in his blood. Now we have no plausible explanation as to where this toxin came from. It looks as though it was released internally, but the only markings we could find on him, other than the obvious wounds of course, was an old scar on the back of his neck and what could possibly be some sort of odd marking in the back of his throat."

Burns considered the information. "So basically, those could be where the toxin entered from?"

The man shrugged. "It was released internally. That’s all I know."

"What about the other body that was recently brought up?"

"Well, now that I know what to look for, and know that the toxin is easily identifiable with some simple tests, I should know soon."

"Didn’t you take his blood when he first arrived?"

"I did, but I did a visual exam first, then an autopsy. It would’ve been done if there had been somebody else to work on it." This last was said somewhat bitterly.

She told him to get to work on it immediately, before leaving. She headed back towards the town hall, pausing for a minute when she saw the thick smoke in the distance.

"Ma’am?" Tannis asked.

"Yeah?"

"Has the information from Parliament arrived?"

She shook her head, a frown playing on her face. Had Colonel Jack O’Neill learned this, he would have been immediately suspicious. But Burns accepted this. Canada had slightly different priorities, such as giving tax breaks to the rich or cutting back on education. Delayed information from parliament was nothing, usually.

The sound of a helicopter reached their ears. Tannis sighed in relief. It meant the wounded could be treated and evacuated as quickly as possible. Beside him, Burns turned and moved to the temporary landing pad at a run.

"Come on Tannis!" She called back over her shoulder. Then to herself, "Jesus Christ! Where is everybody? Whatever happened to staying at your post?"

-----------------------------

Teal’c glanced at the ground beneath him, eager to get away from the horribly loud machine and the conversationalist escort. The man seemed too enthusiastic in just about the longest, most pointless subjects, in Teal’c’s opinion. When the helicopter landed, he got out slowly, mentally wondering how the Tau’ri managed to build airplanes that rode smoothly in the air, with air transportation that was as loud and as bump as what he had just ridden in.

A woman came running up to the landed aircraft. She cast a hesitant sideways glance at him before moving to talk to the pilots. She had to shout to be heard over the deafening noise.

"Hey! Where are the medivacs?"

"Right behind us!"

The woman pulled back and allowed them to take off. Then she turned her attention to Teal’c who stood stoically with hands clasped behind his back. Her eyes examined him from top to bottom. There was a minute of silence.

"And you are?" She asked, her voice tired.

"Teal’c," was all he said.

She nodded, as though this is what she expected. "Yes, yes of course. Teal’c. You hear that, Tannis? He’s Teal’c!" Burns felt her temper rising.

Tannis swallowed and leaned towards the strange newcomer. "I think she wants you to elaborate."

The man merely nodded. "I come from the United States of America."

Now both Canadians exchanged a look.

"Somehow," Burns muttered, "That explains a lot."

She turned her attention to the sky at the sound of incoming helicopters. She stepped back a little, and waited with the others for them to land.

"None of the possible wounded has arrived yet. They’ll be here soon!" She shouted to them, motioning to the road where they would be coming from. The motors were killed and the medical teams exited, moving to set up a series of stretchers.

It wasn’t long before the first of the jeeps arrived. They were filled with wounded: some suffering from burns; others unconscious with ugly gashes to the head. The medical team set to work, checking, transferring, filling up the emergency helicopters. Burns sent Tannis to round up the other soldiers in town. It struck her as odd that none of the previous soldiers were around the town. It was almost as though they had disappeared.

Tannis left and the medical team continued to work until the last jeep, driven by a familiar Sergeant with five other familiar faces, arrived.

Hartley hopped out of the jeep, immediately making his way towards Burns. Her first admittedly shameful thought as she quickly gave him a salute, was why he couldn’t have been injured.

"Ah, Lieutenant. I think we have some matters to discuss." He smiled an arrogant little smile. His eyes turned to the stranger. "Who’s he?"

The American Colonel’s voice answered for her. "Teal’c! How’s it going?"

"I do not believe anything is going, O’Neill." The big man replied.

Jack moved up to give Teal’c a slap on the shoulder. Behind him, Sergeant Lans and Daniel were helping a slightly disoriented Major from the jeep.

"Teal’c, he’s a friend of ours. He works with us, a member of our team." Jack explained to the two Canadian soldiers watching him.

Hartley shook his head. "With all do respect, Colonel O’Neill, I think it might be smart for you and your team to accompany me and Lieutenant Burns to the General’s office-"

"Sir, the General isn’t there." Burns stated.

"Oh, really?" Was all the man said before turning and heading off in the direction of the Town Hall.

O’Neill followed along with the rest of his team. Carter seemed to have regained herself, but Daniel suggested she get checked out just to be careful. Burns fell in beside the Sergeant and Jackson.

"What happened?" She asked Lans, but it was Daniel who answered.

"The ship self-destructed."

"Just like that?" Burns asked. She considered Tannis’s earlier words, and the Major’s odd question.

"No. We’ve encountered this technology before. The self-destruct mechanism needs to be activated. Chances are that someone around here activated it."

"Sorry, Doctor Jackson, but no one around here would have the knowledge to do anything like that. I doubt that any Canadian has actually seen a space ship before." Lans said.

Burns looked closely at the civilian. "I bet you would need something to activate that mechanism, a piece of technology perhaps?"

Daniel fell silent.

At the town hall, Burns was called in first for a quick conversation with the Captain. Lans was left outside to guard the Americans. Daniel, Jack and Teal’c stood around a seated Carter, quietly talking so the guarding sergeant could not make out their words.

"What brought you here, Teal’c?" Daniel asked, looking into the dark face of his friend.

"General Hammond believed you were in need of assistance." He raised an eyebrow. "Apparently he was correct in his assumption."

Jack shook his head. "We didn’t steal any of the technology."

"Who do you think did it, Sir?" Carter asked, seeming to have recovered completely from her bump on the head.

"Goa’uld." Daniel answered simply.

"Is it the original Goa’uld?" Teal’c asked.

Jack shook his head. "Nah, that one was dead on arrival, or at least the host was."

"The Canadians are very suspicious of you." Teal’c stated. He was surprised. He had been given the impression that Canadians were polite friendly people, or at least that’s how they had been portrayed on the television.

"Can you blame them?" Daniel asked with a shake of his head.

"Doesn’t mean they have the right to accuse us of crimes we didn’t commit. Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?"

"Their suspicions are very similar to those of the Russians."

O’Neill grimaced. "I’m a little worried we might be back in the same situation. Something’s wrong here."

"I know. What happened to all the soldiers?"

"This is Canada, I’d be more concerned with a lot of soldiers." Jack quipped, but there was a serious note in his voice. He seemed about to say more when the door opened and a thin-lipped Lieutenant Burns motioned them inside. Jack could see her hands clamped into fists and wondered briefly what had passed between her and her commanding officer.

The Captain was at the General’s desk. He leaned on it staring at the clean surface, seemingly lost in thought. Only when Jack cleared his throat did he look up. His face was an arrogant mask. He pushed himself from the desk and moved with determination towards the Colonel.

"Colonel O’Neill, I think there’s a lot of explaining to be done." His voice was friendly, a complete contradiction to his demeanor.

"Ya think?" Jack replied with an easy grin.

"We’ve been kept in the dark long enough-" He started, but Jack interrupted.

"Hey, that wasn’t our job. Take that up with your CO. The American government has been very open with its info. You should have been briefed, and if you haven’t, then it just proves that this whole operation needs leadership (lacks leadership)."

Now the Captain pushed his face, red and ugly, right into O’Neill’s. "I don’t know what your government’s been telling you, but as far as the General is concerned, there was absolutely no information sent here from parliament."

"What?"

Jack felt dumbfounded and his gut was screaming. There was something more to this. His mind offered the possibility of irresponsibility on the part of the Canadian government, before dismissing it. It was too wrong.

"Look Captain Hartley. We honestly have no idea why that would be the case! We can explain it to you-" Jackson tried hopelessly

"You’d better start explaining, because I’ve had just about as much bullshit as I can take!"

Carter cast a glance towards Lieutenant Burns who had a look of utter surprise on her face. She compared this Captain to the one who had been much more close mouthed to earlier that morning.

Now there was silence in the room. The decision was completely up to the Colonel. He was the only one who could decide whether to reveal the whole truth. With an impassive face he said,

"Daniel! Tell the man."

"You sure Jack?"

"Oh, yeah. Positive."

Daniel nodded. "Okay, approximately five years ago, a thing called the Stargate was discovered at a dig in Giza. It allowed interplanetary travel from one Stargate to another, in different worlds."

"You’re shitting me!" Burns muttered, her face watching Daniel incredulously.

Her comment was ignored. "We are a first contact team that travels through the gate. The ship you found, or rather, the ship that crashed here belongs to…"

"Unfriendlies." Jack supplied.

"It’s Goa’uld. They’re a parasitical race that suppress their host-"

"They have a bit of a superiority complex." Jack quipped, much to Daniel’s chagrin. As far as he was concerned, there was no point in making Hartley angrier than he already was.

The two men fell silent. Hartley’s face seemed to be working, taking in the new information, digesting it.

"You’re saying the United States has been fighting a war against hostile alien parasites? For how long?"

Jack shrugged, "Seven years now, give or take."

Hartley raised a hand before his eyes, blocking the Colonel from his vision. He motioned to Burns, his words muttered but firm.

"Lieutenant, I want you to place Colonel O’Neill and his team under…observation. Constant guard. That understood?"

An expression flickered briefly over her face, but what came out was, "Yes, Sir." In a tight voice.

"Hey!" It was Daniel who spoke out, outraged by the stupidity. "In case you don’t already know, you’ve got one of those Goa’uld’s here! Who do you think blew up the ship?" He was about to continue when Jack placed a restraining hand on his arm. The firm grip warned the archeologist to keep his mouth shut.

Burns led them out of the Captain’s presence. She told the Sergeant to remain outside the door and to radio her should the General return. She led SG-1 outside into the sunlight, her eyes searching for Tannis. She led them down the street, to the convenience store, smiling inwardly at the idea of locking four adults in a convenience store full of candy.

Her amusement quickly faded as she considered what had just been revealed. A parasitical alien, a la body snatchers? She thought of the body lying in the ice cream truck, the one with the strange toxin in its blood. She looked at the Colonel, weighing possible consequences for her decision.

"Colonel." She stopped, still in the middle of the road. "What you were explaining to the Captain back there, that true?" Yeah, she thought to herself, they’re really going to come up with an elaborate lie no one in their right mind would believe to get them out of possible theft charges.

"Every word of it." He didn’t seem surprised at her question.

"We have a body that had a foreign toxin in it, possibly two."

"Possibly two?" Jack raised his eyebrows.

"Our doctor was getting ready to do the blood test when I left him working on the body of a boy. Point being, could these, Goa’ulds do something like that?"

Teal’c spoke up. "The parasite releases a toxin into the host when exiting. It is deadly to the Tau’ri."

Burns placed her hands on her hips, "You’re not from the United States, are you."

Daniel answered for her. "Actually, he’s from a planet called Chulak."

Teal’c gave a single nod of his head.

Burns shrugged, "Why not?" She examined Jack closely. "I’m not saying I like this, and should this all go wrong, I’m claiming I was held at gunpoint, but I think we’ve got a problem here."

"You could say that again." Carter muttered.

"As clichéd as it may sound, I need someone to trust, and my Captain’s… well, you get the idea."

"Show us the body." Daniel said, shaking a hand back over his shoulder. Burns hesitated as though doubting her decision before leading the way. Quietly she wondered how long she would be imprisoned after the court martial.

She walked beside the large black man. She could not for the life of her consider him to be an alien. Every so often she would dart a look around the town. She wondered where Tannis had disappeared to. She glanced back over her shoulder, down the road where faintly, in the distance she could make out the barricades of the quarantine. Tannis had probably gone to talk to the guards. She noted two soldiers heading towards the empty train station. The sight made her feel better. It made the town real, not some part of a twisted movie set, or ghost town.

At the post office there were more soldiers. Most of them were ones that had been injured in the explosion but not badly enough to justify evacuation on a helicopter; those who weren’t injured were helping two medical officers with the basic care giving. She led SG-1 over to them. They was sewing up a nasty gash on a man’s shoulder.

"Have you seen the doctor?"

"Nope. Sorry."

She sighed, "Do you know if there were any results or something he left for me? It’s important."

"Sorry, Lieutenant, I’m busy right now. You might check the back." He didn’t look up as he spoke.

Before Burns could reply, Carter spoke up. "Okay." She headed towards the back, the others following closely behind her.

"Hey!" Burns called after her, catching up with them. "Won’t you need someone to explain it?"

Carter shook her head.

"You’re a doctor?" Burns asked, surprised.

"Astrophysicist, actually. But I’ve seen what the toxin looks like in blood tests. We’ve encountered it before."

Carter immediately went to the laptop that had been left open on a counter, and started studying the charts. Daniel moved to the small covered form on a stainless steel gurney. He pulled back the sheet, revealing the face of a young boy. He turned away, his face suddenly very pale. He moved back to Jack, leaving Teal’c to do the inspection of the back of the neck.

"There is indeed an entry scar, O’Neill." The Jaffa covered the body again.

"Yeah, and definitely the toxin released by a Goa’uld, Sir." Carter said, looking up from the computer.

"Now all we need is the Goa’uld and we’re all set." Jack sighed.

------------------------------

Sergeant Lans grimaced as she shut the door. She had never heard a superior officer use so many swear words at one time, directed at one officer. She went outside, towards the jeep. She was supposed to relieve one of the barricade guards.

"Sarge, where’s the LT?" Tannis’s voice asked from behind her.

She whirled around. "Jesus you scared me! The LT is watching the Americans. Head down to the post office, though. They need some help down there, most likely."

Tannis gave a quick salute and left. Lans sighed, pausing for a minute. The to take a breath of the air that still smelled faintly of smoke. She got into the jeep and headed off down the road when a voice hailed her to stop. She turned, a smile on her face as she hopped out of the jeep, her hand raised as though she were about to wave. The man raised his hand in return.

The look on her face was almost comical when the energy blast hit her fully in the chest. She went flying through the air, into the wall of the building. There was a sickening crack of bone as first her back, then her head collided with the wall. She slid down, eyes wide and staring.

Laughter drifted over her lifeless body.

---------------------

Daniel paced the room. His friends and the Lieutenant watched him. He had his finger in front of his face in that very patient way he had when he wanted one more minute but was rushed for an answer. Jack was quiet, not even a smartass passing his lips. Carter simply frowned; Teal’c was expressionless.

"So… What do we do now?" Burns asked. The entire situation bothered her. She found herself wishing that she hadn’t decided to watch Dreamcatcher. The whole situation was too reminiscent of the enjoyable film: small town, aliens taking over a man’s body, the American military (given it was air force instead of army).

"We must wait for the Goa’uld to move. Then we strike." Teal’c turned his head slightly to look at her.

"That’s it? Not really much of a plan." She glanced up at the ceiling. "Why wouldn’t it have left by now? Better yet, why did it destroy its ship? Wasn’t that its best escape plan?"

"Yeah, well, the Gould’s seem to have this problem with thinking logically. It’s the godly delusional thing, ya know." Jack replied.

"Besides it probably took over one of your people. It may think it can manipulate the situation from within rather than making itself known." Daniel said, stopping to look at them, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"That’s logical thinking, isn’t it?" Burns asked, confused. Her eyes went from the colonel to the archeologist.

The men exchanged glances, their heads moving in evasive nods. "Yeah." They said in unison.

"I haven’t sensed anything so far." Carter’s voice was quiet.

"It does not matter, Major Carter. We do not know if you are indeed not a Goa’uld."

"What about you Teal’c? You can’t be a host." Daniel said his voice suddenly hopeful.

"This cannot be certain, Daniel Jackson. I no longer carry a larval Goa’uld."

"In other words, same rules don’t apply."

"So there’s absolutely no way to tell who this thing is?" Burns moved over to the gurney, her eyes scanning the form.

"Well, if their eyes glow, or they have an unusually deep voice." Jack shrugged.

Burns sighed. "So, Major Carter, Ma’am, you can sense these things? I mean, hypothetically, if you weren’t compromised."

"Yeah."

"Looks like we’re going have to trust you. You’ve got all the uninjured people out there as well as injured. But I doubt an alien life form would take a weak body."

"Lieutenant, do you have a theory?" Jack’s voice was slightly amused.

"Captain Hartley-. He suits each description, -plus, he wants you out of the way-"

Carter shook her head. "I would have sensed it. He was in close proximity."

Burns’s head fell. "Well, I think then that I should talk to Sergeant Lans. She was only a driver and wouldn’t have been in any position to be attacked." Burns headed towards the door but was stopped by Jack’s voice.

"Daniel and I’ll go with you. Carter, you and Teal’c test the people here anyway. Just to be safe."

-----------------------------

Burns went for the jeep that was parked by the post office entry. She hopped in the driver’s seat, while the two men climbed in behind. The wind was picking up, and dark clouds had started to move across the once bright blue sky. Typical, she thought, now we have a thunderstorm forming. It only took them a couple of minutes to reach the town hall.

Jack was out of the jeep before it had stopped, heading with purpose for the double doors. Burns had to run to catch up to him. She placed a restraining hand on his shoulder, and stepped in front of him.

"If Hartley’s there, it’s probably best he sees only me. I’ll get Lans."

She pushed open the door and was surprised to find the front room empty. She debated about asking Hartley where the Sergeant had gone, but knew better. She returned outside to where Jack was waiting. Daniel had moved a little further up the road, his blue eyes surveying the surrounding area.

"She’s not in there, he probably sent her to the perimeter or something."

"You didn’t ask him?"

"You’re not the one who would be facing charges for disobeying a direct order." Burns replied stubbornly.

"Hey!" Daniel’s shout startled them. They turned to see him waving at a soldier coming from across the road. The soldier waved back.

"Can you see who that is?" Daniel asked O’Neill as the soldier came towards them. Neither of them even had time to blink when a blue jolt of energy hit him in the chest. He went falling backwards, body jerking in pained spasms.

-------------------------

Carter moved aside as two soldiers, one wounded in the head helping one with a leg wrapped in bloody bandages, entered. She sighed slightly in frustration. She was certain she would not find the Goa’uld in the rabble of wounded. Another soldier walked into her.

"Sorry, sorry, I didn’t see you there." Tannis mumbled distantly. Then he realized whom he was talking to. "Major Carter?" He sounded confused. "Isn’t the LT supposed to have you under arrest?"

"Tannis, we’re not under arrest. Look there are some…things-"

"We are looking for a parasitical extra terrestrial that has joined with one of your people." Teal’c said helpfully.

"Thank you Teal’c." Carter said in a perfect imitation of Jack.

"It is of no consequence, Major Carter."

"You mean it’s no problem."

The man simply nodded. The Major looked back at the young private who was staring at them both in confusion.

"I don’t know where the Lieutenant is, but I think you should come with me to see the Captain." Tannis said. It was a request rather than an attempt at an order. He had no appreciation for the egotistical Captain Hartley, or for his orders. He figured Lieutenant Burns had a better idea of how to handle this situation. Also, an unacknowledged part of him admitted, he was developing a lot of a respect for the intelligent Major.

Carter looked at him. "Tannis, look, we don’t have time for this…"

"You sound like the doctor."

"What do you mean?"

Tannis shrugged. "I noticed him when I was looking around for people. He was not a happy man, he was ranting to himself about not having time for something. He sounded funny."

"How?" Teal’c asked the young private intensely.

"I don’t know his voice was weird. He should have been here though not out in the town…. He might have left to help the wounded-"

Carter interrupted him, turning to Teal’c, "You don’t think…"

-------------------------

Jack hit the dirt instinctively. Another zat blast sailed over his head, landing near the Lieutenant who had followed his example. He cursed Daniel for calling attention to them. He rolled behind the jeep and found that Burns had followed him. She had drawn her gun.

"Give me cover fire, I have to get him." Jack said, crouching near the edge of the jeep.

He jumped up and ran quickly. He felt a sense of relief when he saw that Jackson was still conscious, making a slow attempt for cover. Several bullets were fired over his head at the man. He wondered how much good that would do. The weapon was standard issue of the Canadian military, meaning they had better weapons in the War of 1812. Also there was the small matter of ammunition. Not only that, but the Goa’uld was still considerably out of range.

He got to Daniel who had regained more movement. He grabbed the man and tried to drag him back to the jeep. The Goa’uld seemed to have realized that he was out of range. His eyes glowed in triumph. O’Neill fell backwards as a zat blast hit him. Now it was Jackson’s turn to play hero. He took Jack and attempted to move him, another shot went over his head. Suddenly a shadow loomed over him and someone jumped down beside him.

Burns had run out of bullets so she covered them with the next best thing: the jeep. She hopped in narrowly missing one of the strange electrical blasts aimed at her, purely out of luck. She had dipped her head slightly to turn the ignition of the jeep just as one sailed over her head. Then she stepped on the gas and covered the two men with it, hopping down beside Jackson and a slowly recovering O’Neill.

"You’re supposed to be covering us!" O’Neill grunted.

"Out of bullets." She said, wincing at how that must have sounded to the Colonel. Surprisingly, it was the archeologist that replied.

"How can you be out of bullets?" He asked with surprise.

Any answer was cut off when the jeep was hit. The engine started to smoke. O’Neill was now mostly mobile.

"Okay, on the count of three, we run to the town hall." He said, as a second blast hit the jeep. "One…" The jeep disappeared.

----------------------

Carter ran. She wished they had been able to use a jeep, but they had been unable to find one immediately with a key still in it. To spend the time looking, she thought, would be a waste, especially when she heard the gunshots. Teal’c ran ahead of her in a steady rhythm. Tannis puffed along a little behind her. At the corner, Teal’c held up a hand for them to stop. Together, the three of them looked towards where three figures were making a mad dash away from a fourth person.

"Tannis give me your weapon." Carter held out her hand. The man didn’t hesitate. "Okay, Teal’c, you flank him. I’ll try and distract him." Teal’c nodded and slipped back behind the corner building. "Tannis," She turned to look at him. "I want you to stay here."

Tannis shook his head. "I’ll help you, Ma’am. I’m trained for this."

Briefly Carter thought about the Colonel. She imagined the annoyance she felt in her gut at the private’s refusal to comply with an order was what O’Neill felt on almost any mission with his team. Then it was gone and she nodded intently. They started forward.

They moved quickly, remaining in the open, so the Goa’uld could see them coming, as well as the Colonel, Jackson, and Burns. Carter wished for an MP-90. The pathetic handgun she now held was absolutely useless until they got considerably closer. Despite this, she started firing earlier, calling the alien’s attention to her.

Suddenly, a strange distortion of air surrounded him. Carter cursed as she saw the familiar shield set up into place.

"Carter! In the town hall!" O’Neill cried.

She nodded, pushing Tannis into motion. The man had seemed momentarily transfixed when he witnessed the strange light show of the shield. The nudge got him moving and together they ran to the town hall and yanked open the door. Daniel, the Colonel and Lieutenant stumbled in through the door. They slammed it shut behind them.

"Much good this will do." Daniel muttered as they pulled away from the door.

"Where’s Teal’c?" Jack asked, turning to the Major.

"He was flanking the Goa’uld. He’ll stay undercover, Sir."

A door flew open, and Hartley came out of the main room, his eyes dark with anger. He stood a brief moment, surveying the seemingly bedraggled group of military personnel and single civilian before roaring,

"Burns! What the hell is going on?" The Lieutenant opened her mouth to answer, but the captain continued. "No! I don’t want to hear it! Why aren’t they under lock and key?" He pointed at the Americans, his face showing outward contempt. "You disobeyed a direct order, Lieutenant. I’m going to have you-"

This was when the door suddenly blew open. Burns thought that there would never be another time when she was so thankful for an interruption of any nature. Unfortunately, this was her last thought before she was knocked unconscious by flying debris.

Major Carter, who had been standing nearest to the door, was pushed to the side, a sickening crack resounding as her arm broke. Daniel was pierced with a rather large splinter that, thankfully, went only deep enough to cause severe pain. Tannis’s shoulder was dislocated, and his forehead cut. Blood poured from the wound and into his eyes, blurring his vision. Colonel O’Neill and Hartley were lucky enough to emerge nearly unharmed. Jack had a small cut running down his cheek.

Hartley stood there, his mouth hanging stupidly open as he faced the hole in the wall where a rather large door once existed. Then he drew his gun and dropped into the accustomed crouch, firing his weapon. The man had a killer shot, Jack noted absently as the shots hit neatly in the vicinity of the head. Of course, O’Neill conceded quietly, bullets never did do much damage to an energy shield. Then he wished longingly for his knife.

-----------------------

Teal’c had stopped one building behind the Goa’uld. He did not know what he had been hoping for, but it had not been the energy shield he had seen suddenly start up. He had heard many Tau’ri expressions in his time among them. Most from Colonel O’Neill, and it was with him in mind that he muttered in a tone he reserved for Hassak’s (as said in his native tongue):

"Peachy"

The word sounded foreign coming from the Jaffa. But it still expressed everything he felt. He noted the small group making their mad dash for cover of the building. He moved back behind the building and then made his way to the side of the town hall. His plan was perhaps considerably flawed, but Teal’c knew it was either right now or the possible death of his friends. So he made his move. Unfortunately it was a little too late.

Teal’c was large and well trained Jaffa, but as someone once said, every body has its weakness, and for Teal’c, it was that he was not the fastest runner on the planet… or planets. But though his lack of speed contributed to the failure of his rough plan, it was ironically, his speed that ruined it for him.

The Goa’uld raised his hand device and blew open the door of the town hall. There were several loud shots. Teal’c wasn’t sure who fired the shots, but it was only a passing annoyance. The Jaffa remembered when Colonel O’Neill had thrown his knife through Her’ur’s palm. He remembered their discovery that a slower moving object could slip through the energy. Later he would compare his behavior to that of a child trying out a science experiment to see whether or not a single match could make a can of cooking spray explode. Teal’c thought he could get through the shield moving relatively slowly, but fast enough to tackle. He charged and the shield repelled him. He was thrown ten feet and his last thought was something he had once heard Daniel Jackson utter to Colonel O’Neill.

"You are such an ass."

-----------------------------------------

He stood before them in all his glory, his head held high, an arrogant smile on his face. He stared contemptuously at the litter of debris and people around him.

"Foolish Tau’ri!" He laughed. "Do you believe you can kill a God?"

Hartley was staring at the person who stood at the door. He had lowered his weapon as soon as he realized how ineffective it was. Jack couldn’t tell whether or not he recognized the host. He sure as hell didn’t. Daniel sat near him, trying to pull the splinter out of his leg. Carter was across from him, her face white with strain and pain. She looked as though she were going to pass out. Tannis simply looked confused. Jack wasn’t particularly worried about the blood. Head wounds always bled more. He had been more surprised when he heard the large impact on the shield surrounding the false God. He had been unable to see what had impacted the shield, but it had made the alien laugh.

"Bow to your God, Geb, and I may decide to spare you." His eyes landed on O’Neill and flashed menacingly.

"Uh-oh."

Jack turned to the man beside him. "What do you mean, uh-oh?"

"Nothing important, Jack."

"Daniel?"

The archeologist shrugged. "Geb was the son of Shu and Tefnut. He had several children. Among them were Nephthys, Isis, Osiris, and Seth. He was the God of fertility and vegetation, but was also known to imprison souls and keep them from the underworld. His laughter supposedly created earthquakes."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Just once I want to meet a Goa’uld of no relation to the ones we’ve killed!"

"That’s not very likely seeing as-"

"Daniel!"

"Shutting up."

The Goa’uld smiled at Daniel. It made the young man shudder. Daniel stood up, attempting to ignore the pain in his leg. Jack’s arm crept underneath his own to support the linguist.

Jack thought of the humor in the situation. They had spent several years fighting the Goa’uld, had destroyed whole armies in fact, with only four people. Now they were all of them held captive by a single Goa’uld. Oh, the irony.

"You refuse to acknowledge your God, therefore one of you will pay the price." He raised the ribbon device and aimed it at Carter, who was nearest him. It started to glow. Her mouth opened as pain engulfed her head, numbing the pain in her arm.

"Wait!"

Jackson’s plea called the attention of the creature away from the suffering Major. He came closer to the leaning archeologist, eyebrows raised. Even the others in the room were looking at him. There was a long awkward silence.

Finally Jack spoke up. "Daniel? Is there anything you wanted to say?" The Goa’uld stood staring them both in the face.

"Ah, no, well I didn’t actually think of anything after the ‘wait’ part."

Jack groaned as the alien raised his jeweled hand.

Behind him, Tannis suddenly hopped to his feet and dashed for the door ducking low enough to grab for his fallen weapon with his good arm, next to Carter. The young private wasn’t certain what his plan was, but he figured another distraction was in order. The Goa’uld turned and fired at him, sending him flying back into the wall. It was then that Jack and Daniel fell forwards onto the alien, taking him down on the ground. Daniel rolled off quickly, allowing Jack to make full use of his hand-to-hand combat abilities. He crawled over first to the fallen Lieutenant who was just starting to come around, then over to Carter, and finally over to Tannis who was down for the count.

Jack struggled with Geb but knew that even with the element of surprise he was no match for the superior strength. Almost too quickly the false God had pinned Jack beneath him. The struggle became to keep the alien’s hands from snapping Jack’s very delicate neck bone. There was a sinister smile on the host’s face at the obvious upper hand. Very quickly it turned into a look of surprised pain when there was a very sickening crack at the base of the neck, and the body slumped into unconsciousness. Jack pushed the body off and took to his feet just as something slimy burst from the back of the neck. There was a moment of blind revulsion as the snake made its way towards the nearest neck (which happened to belong to a semi-conscious Lieutenant Burns) then Jack did what he was best at. He improvised and stepped on the snake, smiling at the sound of its head breaking under his boot.

Mentally he noted with sadistic glee, ‘Gotcha.’ Then he turned to see who had saved his sorry ass. He came face to face with a very arrogant and very annoyed looking Captain Hartley.

-------------------------------

SG-1 stood in the bright sunlight. They were waiting patiently for the helicopter that would take them to the airport where a plane would take them home. With them stood Tannis and Burns, under orders of course, as Burns had dutifully clarified for them. Now Tannis spoke eagerly to Carter, asking twenty questions on the Goa’uld shield device. The other four watched with amused grins (except Teal’c who watched with an amused raised eyebrow). Each of them with the exception of O’Neill and Teal’c were bandaged up, Sam with her arm in a cast; Daniel on crutches; Tannis with his arm in a sling and a bandage wrapped neatly around his head; and the same for the Lieutenant.

The helicopter landed. Tannis said his good-byes to the team. SG-1 filed into the helicopter, Colonel O’Neill last.

He went up to Burns. "You did some good work, for a Canadian soldier completely unprepared for this kind of situation." He smiled, amused.

She frowned at him. "Oh, I don’t know Colonel, all of us up here are trained for handling American soldiers." She smiled tiredly, "But seriously Sir, do me one favor."

"And what would that be?" Jack asked, raising his eyebrows.

("Never come here again, okay?" With that she saluted again and walked away with Private Tannis leaving an open mouthed Colonel O’Neill staring after her, much to the amusement of the rest of SG-1.

--------------------------

Epilogue

Colonel Jack O’Neill stalked through the halls underneath Cheyenne Mountain heading for a meeting with General Hammond. Jack pondered why the General wanted to see him in particular. Then his mind wondered back to the fallout of what had happened three months ago. After getting back from Canada, he hadn’t exactly been on any superiors’ ‘nice’ list.

From General Hammond to the president of the United States, the Air Force Colonel had a lot of explaining to do. He remembered the debriefing. He never knew a human being could turn so red.

"Colonel O’Neill, do you mind telling me why the United States of America finds itself needing to paying financial damages of over several million dollars?!" Hammond had yelled after dismissing the rest of SG-1.

"Well, Sir, it wasn’t actually our fault, the Goa’uld-it blew up the ship…"

Hammond had become quiet, which had made Jack considerably more worried because he was still red. "Alright, Colonel, I can give you the benefit of the doubt. Just tell me, from the beginning everything that happened so that I can tell my superiors WHY WE HAD TO PAY ANOTHER COUNTRY THE SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT IT TAKES TO TURN ON THE LIGHTS IN THIS FACILITY!!" Jack had winced at the General’s yelling and wondered where Janet Frasier was on duty in case his superior officer should drop dead from a stroke.

And so he had told Hammond everything, from the untrusting Canadians to figuring out there was a snake on the loose. He told them about being under arrest, about Burns’s help and about the final showdown in the town hall. All throughout, the General had remained quiet, until Jack had finished.

"And the Goa’uld was who exactly?"

"Well, we think that originally it was a relative of the murdered family, before it jumped to possibly General Miles. We believe it was the General who started the self-destruct after stealing the zat and the ribbon device. At one point it decided to switch, or had to switch and ended up in the Doctor who for some reason had left the infirmary."

"I see. And this Captain Hartley, he believed you were the ones stealing the technology."

"Yes, Sir."

"And if the Goa’uld was in the General, how come Major Carter didn’t sense it?"

"We don’t know Sir. It might not even have been the General. His was one of the bodies nobody found."

"I see." Hammond had looked Jack over, then dismissed him tiredly. Before shutting the door behind him, O’Neill could have sworn he heard a muttered remark about "the world being crazier than Jesus on a racehorse" but decided to ignore it.

Since then his superior had seemed his normal self, except that it seemed that now SG-1 got all the soil survey missions. Lately, the General seemed to be smirking at his star team. Now suddenly, Hammond had called him in for a surprise meeting and somehow Jack knew it would be an assignment to loath. He reached the debriefing room, steeled himself, knocked at the door, heard the customary come-in, and went in.

He was met by Hammond’s smiling face sitting at the head of the table flanked on the left by two strangers while on the right sat two familiar faces. There was a brief moment of awkward silence before Jack saluted the General. He then turned to one of the familiar faces.

"I thought you didn’t want to see me again."

The woman looked at him before replying not un-embittered, "It was either this, or court martial."
Anything else that could have been added was prevented by the warm cheery voice of the General.

"Colonel O’Neill, I have a new assignment for you and SG-1." Jack groaned inwardly as he realized what was coming. "I want you to start training our new allies in the fight against the Goa’uld. Colonel, meet SG-Can, the newest field team."

It was going to be one of those months he thought, as he took in the four curious faces around the table.

Author's Note: First time, don't be too harsh.

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© July 2004 They ain't mine, and I admit it freely. So please don't sue me.<