Jack found him alone in Crazy’s lab, poring over one of the Wraith computer screens. He looked up when he noticed Jack hovering in the doorway and offered a wary smile. “Colonel.”
“Jimmy,” Jack said, just to be difficult.
O’Kane looked at him for a long beat, and then returned his attention to the screen. “I understand you’re planning on returning to Atlantis?”
“Seems like the smart thing to do,” Jack said walking further into the lab. He remembered being there before, as Crazy’s prisoner. It felt like a long time ago, back before he knew where and what this place was—when he still thought they were headed home.
“The navis temporis didn’t work?” O’Kane said, still not looking up.
Jack paused before answering. He supposed Carter must have told him about the time ship—or, more likely—vice versa. “It worked,” Jack said, because there was no reason to lie. “We just couldn’t change anything.”
To his surprise, O’Kane’s head drooped. “You were—you sought to change the past?” he said in a low voice. There was a tremor in it that Jack thought he understood.
“We’re not meant to be here,” he said by way of explanation. “Looks like Hecate brought us forward from our own time just to screw things up. No idea if the Wraith were part of her plan, but they were definitely a consequence.” He took a step closer, let his fingers trail idly over the gizmos on the work bench. “We had to try fixing it, James.”
O’Kane nodded. After a pause, and in a tight voice, he said, “Why didn’t it work?”
“You’re talking to the wrong person,” Jack said. “But Carter thinks—Something about creating two different realities.”
“Could you try again?”
It wasn’t the question Jack was expecting. “Try again?”
O’Kane looked up and his face was stricken. “Could you go back and try something different to change all this?”
“You do realize,” Jack said carefully, “that if we did that—not that Carter thinks we can—but if we did, if it worked, the odds are that you’d never have been born?”
O’Kane gave a bitter smile. “Yes, that would be the objective.” His eyes roamed around the lab. “None of this would be here.”
“Look,” Jack said, moving closer, lowering his voice. “We’ll get you out of this—away from the Wraith. We won’t leave you behind, James. When Earthborn takes Atlantis back to Pegasus, you’ll stay here. And things will get better, Earth will be safe and—”
“Earth isn’t my home,” O’Kane said. “I’m from Arbella, remember? Everything I—” He cut himself off. “I can never go home. Do you have any idea how it feels to…?” He trailed off, ducked his head. “I’m sorry, of course you do.”
Jack huffed out a bleak laugh. “Yeah. But why can’t you go home?”
“The Arbellan gate is closed,” he said. “And even if it wasn’t, they’d never trust me now. I’ve been gone too long and Caroline…” He shook his head, turned back to the screen. “It’s been too long.”
“No it hasn’t,” Jack said. “Listen, the gate isn’t closed and there are people there who want to keep it open. My team’s been there, and Daniel and Teal’c have—” Of course, he didn’t know for sure; this was just hoping, but there was nothing wrong with a little of hope. “They’ve gone back to Arbella to convince the president to help us fight for Earth—to come back to Earth and fight.”
O’Kane stared. “Impossible.”
“It’s true, I swear. And if anyone can persuade him, it’s Daniel.”
“You mean the CMF are coming here? To Earth?”
“Right through the Stargate. That’s the plan.”
“It’ll never happen.”
There wasn’t much Jack could do about that assertion, given the fact that he didn’t know whether Daniel and Teal’c had been successful. So he changed tack and said, “Who’s Caroline?”
O’Kane blinked, and then looked away. “She’s—she’s my wife. Or she was. She must think me dead by now, of course.”
He waited a beat, taking in O’Kane’s pained expression. “Listen to me,” he said then, lowering his voice, “we’ll get you home, okay? However this ends, we’ll get you back to Arbella. Even if the gate’s closed, there are other ways—the gate-ship, Atlantis itself. You’ve just gotta keep hoping.”
“Do you really think it’s possible?”
Jack put a hand on his shoulder, drawing his eyes back to him. “Yeah, I do,” he said. “We’ll make it happen. You have my word.”
“So all we have to do first is steal Atlantis from Queen Shadow and drive the parasite-god, Hecate, from Earth?” O’Kane delivered it dead-pan, but Jack detected a vein of humor beneath the words.
“Sure,” he said letting go of the man’s shoulder. “Piece of cake.”
O’Kane gave a thin smile.
“Speaking of which,” Jack said, “we’re going to need to know how to take control of the city. Full control. And I don’t mean the operations center we found last time. I mean somewhere that will let me get the thing airborne.”
O’Kane nodded. “That’s exactly what I’ve been looking for.” He tapped his finger against the screen. “And I think I’ve found it. They call it the ‘control chair’ —it’s what powers the city’s weapons and its star drive.”
“Star drive? Cool.”
“The chair appears to be a very powerful piece of technology,” O’Kane conceded.
“And where is it?” Jack said, getting down to what mattered. “Somewhere easily accessible, close to a landing platform, and far away from Shadow’s soldiers I expect?”
O’Kane made a face. “It’s at the top of the eastern most tower in the inner city. And well-guarded.”
“Yeah,” Jack said with a sigh. “Of course it is.”
* * *
Once Sting had made his move on Hecate, the lab was thrown into chaos and Sam found herself pinned down behind one of the benches. Teal’c was on the far side of the room, with Rya’c, and Daniel was taking cover somewhere behind her. None of them were armed.
Daniel had a good shot at making it to the door and she was determined he was going to take it. Getting Daniel to the surface so he could tell the colonel what was going on, and help him secure Atlantis, was a top priority. At this point, the Ancient city might be their only chance of rescuing the situation.
Sting’s play had thrown everything out the window and the only option now was to retreat and find backup.
After the initial flurry of Sting’s attack, Hecate—Sam refused to see Janet—was crouched at the far side of the lab, protected by the hybrid, Sobek-Boneshard, while Sting circled them both. His teeth were bared, he looked feral with rage. If he had a plan, she didn’t know what it was; taking on Boneshard unarmed would be suicide. Then again, it wouldn’t be the first example of macho posturing she’d seen get people killed. She guessed Wraith were no different.
While Sting circled, Rya’c’s Jaffa stood by uncertainly. Hecate was their goddess and they were sworn to protect her, but to open fire on Sting risked harming her.
More to the point, Rya’c wasn’t giving any orders. She could see him crouched with Teal’c behind the slim shelter of a lab bench. Teal’c had his hand on his son’s shoulder.
Shifting around, Sam caught Daniel’s eye. She nodded toward the doorway, but he looked stubborn. He wouldn’t want to leave without the rest of them. Teal’c must have caught the exchange, because he glanced over and then spoke in Rya’c’s ear. Rya’c looked up, over at Sam and Daniel, then back to the stand-off in the center of the room.
Boneshard bristled, his eyes flaring gold as Sobek spoke. The only saving grace was that he was no longer wearing the hand device. “It is past time that you died, Wraith,” he said.
Behind them, Hecate pushed to her feet. She moved awkwardly, as though injured, and Sam looked away. Despite everything, it was difficult to watch.
“Kill him,” Hecate said in a voice that was all Goa’uld res
onance and nothing like Janet’s. “Kill him now.”
Sting braced himself. “I will not let you destroy us,” he hissed at Sobek. “You are an abomination and you will die.”
But it was a vain gesture. Sting didn’t have a chance against the hybrid and he knew it.
Cursing, Sam pushed to her feet. She couldn’t let him do this alone. “Hecate,” she said. “You can’t win. The lab on Atlantis breeding your hybrids? We destroyed it.”
A flicker of anger crossed her face. “You lie.”
“No. The lab, the symbiotes, the Wraith hosts—they’re all gone. And…” A little bravado never hurt anyone, right? “And we’ve already got control of Atlantis. Surrender now and we’ll spare you.”
Behind her she heard movement; Daniel was moving toward the door, taking advantage of the distraction.
Hecate laughed, a nasty sound. “Do you think me a fool?” she said. “Do you think I don’t know who controls Atlantis? Do you think I would leave any of this to chance? Your Colonel Maybourne keeps me well-informed, I assure you.” Her gaze swept to her Jaffa. “Kill them,” she said. “Kill them all and release the poison into Earth’s atmosphere.”
A dozen staff weapons rose. It was a killing ground, if the Jaffa opened fire it would all be over.
And then Rya’c got to his feet. “Jaffa!” he said, striding out amid his men, one hand raised. “Jaffa—hold.”
Hecate hissed. “What are you doing?”
There was a tremor in Rya’c’s shoulders when he turned to face Hecate, but his chin was held high even if his face was drawn. “You have deceived us,” he said, and then, to his men, “the goddess… She has deceived us all. She seeks to place these creatures above us. Brothers, would you bow before this thing?” He flung his arm toward Sobek. “Is this to be your god?” He turned back to Hecate. “I served you because I believed your lies; I believed you would destroy the creatures who murdered my mother, that you would free the galaxy from their threat.”
He took a step back. “I believed you because you wore the face of a friend, because Colonel Dixon had also been deceived. And, perhaps, because I wanted to believe that there was a way to fight back against the devastation of the Wraith.” His gaze moved to Sobek. “But you are a deceiver, as are all your kind. And I should have known it, because my father—” His voice cracked and he stopped, took a breath, nostrils flaring with the effort of retaining control. “My father raised me to know better, but in anger I turned my back on him and on the truth. This is where that anger has brought me. But I will not be deceived anymore.”
Sam darted her gaze to Teal’c. His face was bright, alive with pride and a kind of joy she’d not seen in him since the first moment he saw Rya’c in the ruins of the SGC.
He caught her eye and, with an imperceptible movement, she gestured to the door; Daniel would need help getting down to the planet’s surface. Teal’c nodded and retreated, with one final glance back at his son.
“Brothers,” Rya’c was saying, facing his men. Some watched him with astonishment, others with suspicion. “Hecate is a false god. And we do not need to serve her. We can serve a more glorious cause.”
“And what cause is that?” Hecate said, her eyes glowing bright. “What cause is more glorious than that of your god?”
Rya’c paused, and when he spoke again, it was his men, not Hecate, that he addressed. “The answer, my brothers, is simple: that cause is freedom.”
* * *
The gate-ship was loaded and ready to go.
Earthborn stood some distance from it, her two blades staying close to her. Their attention was divided between Jack and the camp that sprawled below them, as if unsure which presented the greater threat to their queen. Jack watched them from the shadow of the hive where he sat resting. Waiting.
It was an old habit, this anxious resting before a mission. No point in wearing yourself out with pacing, or endlessly going over the mission details. The trick was to relax your body and your mind, even while the adrenaline was starting to pump and all you wanted to do was get the hell on with the job. It wasn’t easy, but he’d mastered the trick over the years.
Nevertheless, when his radio squawked to life he was grateful that the wait was over.
“Jack, this is Daniel. I could use a ride.”
With a smile, Jack pushed to his feet. Earthborn turned to look at him as Jack toggled his radio. “Daniel, what’s your situation?”
“I’m in the Shacks, close to the tunnel exit.”
“On my way,” he said, striding toward the gate-ship’s ramp. “How did it go?”
There was a silence, then the radio hissed static and Daniel said, “Depends what you mean by ‘it.’”
Which, while typical of Daniel, wasn’t exactly helpful. “Sit tight,” Jack said—it would be better to have this conversation elsewhere anyway. “I’ll be there in a couple minutes.”
While he ran through the last of the pre-flight checks, Earthborn came to sit in the co-pilot’s seat. She looked around with her customary imperious calm, although he thought he detected tension in the set of her shoulders. Behind her, the two Wraith took position in the rear of the ship.
In the doorway of the hive, he saw O’Kane watching, one hand lifted in farewell. The Wraith, Stormfire, lurked in the darkness behind him. Jack didn’t like to imagine what would happen to the pair of them if the mission was a bust, if no one came back. Just another reason they couldn’t fail.
“We’re collecting Daniel from the Shacks,” he said, as he mentally summoned the HUD and started lifting the ship. “You guys probably need to stay out of sight.” He glanced at Earthborn to make sure she understood. “Wraith aren’t exactly flavor of the month around there.”
She just inclined her head and kept her eyes on the view as the ship rose up over the damaged remains of her hive. He engaged the cloak and banked left, out over the Shacks, flying high enough not to draw any attention from the people below but giving him enough visual clues to navigate towards the subterranean entrance to the SGC. What had once been the SGC.
It took a couple passes—the camp was vast and there were few landmarks—but eventually, as he brought the ship in low, he saw a flash of light on Daniel’s glasses where he stood amid the flapping canvas of the shanty town.
There wasn’t a lot of space to land. “Don’t squash anything,” he told the ship as he initiated the landing protocol. Out the window he could see the backdraft whipping up the dirt, Daniel covering his eyes and turning away. Hunter was there too, he realized, and a couple of other resistance fighters. “Stay in the cockpit,” he told Earthborn. “They’ll see you.”
She bristled at the direct order, but Jack didn’t have time to cater to her ego. Perhaps she’d figured that out, because she beckoned her men into the cockpit as the tail ramp descended.
Swinging out of his seat, Jack headed down the ramp into the dirt.
“Jack,” Daniel said, coming around the side of the ship. He looked tense but relived, his gaze roving across the cloaked ship. “Wow,” he said. “This is interesting.”
He wasn’t the only one gaping. Jack could see faces peering out from the hovels these people called home and then Hunter rounded the ship, his eyes like saucers. “I ain’t never seen nothing like it before.”
“Clever toy, huh?” Jack said, and then frowned as he glanced between Hunter and Daniel. There was some kind of tension between the two that he didn’t understand. “Everything okay?”
After a moment of silence Daniel said, “Sure. We should get going.”
Which was definitely code for, I’ll tell you later.
Uncertain, exactly, what was going on Jack just said, “Then let’s go. Hunter—keep your eyes open and your head down. Things might get interesting around here.”
Hunter touched his forehead in the gesture Jack remembered, half deference and half rebellion. “By the grace of the Lady Hecate,” he said, “we’ll be ready.”
Jack decided not to comment on Hecate’s r
ole, instead nudging Daniel toward the tail of the ship. “Good luck,” he said to Hunter. “Be careful.”
“You too, O’Neill.”
He waited until they were inside, Daniel casting a wary look at Earthborn’s blades as he followed Jack into the cockpit, before he asked, “So what’s going on?”
Blowing out a breath, Daniel dropped into the seat behind Jack as the ship lifted. Out the window, Jack could see Hunter shielding his eyes against the swirl of dust the ship left in its wake.
“It’s started,” Daniel said, his voice heavy.
“Hecate didn’t go for the deal with Sting?” It had been a long shot anyway.
“No. Jack, she double-crossed us all.”
“Yeah, I figured. You know how she did it?”
“In every way!” He rubbed a hand over his mouth. “She was never going to destroy the hybrids; she wants them for herself. She’s building an army. But she is going to kill all the other Wraith—poison them. And she wants Atlantis. Jack she said she brought us into the future to make you pilot it for her.”
“Like that’s gonna happen.”
Behind them, Earthborn said, “What of Sting?” She was standing in the doorway to the cockpit, her chin lifted and teeth bared.
There was a beat of silence, and then Daniel said, “It’s chaos up there. Rya’c has half the Jaffa in rebellion. The hybrid—Sobek?—he’s allied with Hecate, and Sting… Last thing I saw, Sting was taking them both on. I’m sorry, I don’t know more than that.” He sat forward in his seat, pulled off his glasses. “But, Jack? I think I made it worse.”
“Made what worse?”
He sighed. “Everything.”
“What?” Jack said. “Daniel…”
“I told Hunter what was going on. I told him Rya’c had turned on Hecate. I thought—” He shook his head. “Stupid,” he said. “I don’t know what I thought; I wasn’t thinking.”
“I take it he wasn’t over the moon?”
“You saw him,” Daniel said. “‘By the grace of the Lady Hecate…’”
“Hunter’s just one man,” Jack said, although he didn’t like it; he didn’t like leaving loose threads behind. He cleared his throat. “Carter and Teal’c?”
Stargate SG-1 30 - Insurrection Page 20
