Who's on First

Earth
Ten days later

General Hammond met his flagship team on the Gateroom ramp. "Any luck, Colonel?" He asked.

"Well, if you define luck as a slow process of elimination that leaves us with precisely squat! then we're rolling in good fortune," Jack O'Neill replied, acidly, before adding a slightly belated: "Sir." He was out of line of course, but Hammond was inclined to cut him a little slack. SG-1 had been pursuing the only promising lead on Amy Kawalsky's suspected captor, Dazsbog, for six days, and they looked as though the ultimately futile hunt had led them through some pretty unpleasant terrain.

"We did manage to locate Dazsbog's base of operations," Sam Carter explained. "We even managed to get inside."

"Wasn't hard," Jack noted. "He'd actually just left and there were hardly a handful of Jaffa left at the base."

"We captured the lieutenant he'd left in charge," Sam went on. "Then contacted the Tok'ra, who sent an operative to question him. It turns out that Captain Kawalsky escaped from Dazsbog's custody in the company of a Jaffa during the attack. Since she didn't have her GDO she couldn't get back here, but if she'd remained at liberty she should have been able to make contact by now."

"The team on P8H-112 have found no sign of Captain Kawalsky," Hammond informed the team. "Besides the personal effects you located only her P90 has shown up in one of the lower corridors."

"But if she didn't get away and she wasn't killed, and Dazsbog didn't take her with him, then she must have been captured by the attackers," Jonas reasoned. "Unfortunately, our captive didn't seem to know who that attacker was. The initial assumption was that Dazsbog's brother Szarovic was making a power grab, but now it seems he has a cast iron alibi."

"He was already dead," Jack chipped in.

"How?" Hammond asked.

"The Goa'uld Czernobog has apparently joined the struggle for Svarog's place among the greater System Lords. He declared his intentions by killing Szarovic and his closest advisers, and razing his palace to the ground."

"Dazsbog was heading out to try and round up the bulk of his brother's forces," Jonas added.

"So we thought it might have been Czernobog attacking Dazsbog," Sam finished. "But it's no use to us if it was, because we don't know where to find him."

"Bringing us back to having squat!" Jack repeated.

"I see," Hammond said. "SG-1 will debrief in an hour, and brief for your next mission at thirteen-hundred."

"Sir..." Jack began.

"Rest assured that we will keep looking for Captain Kawalsky," Hammond promised. "But right now I need you on something else."

"Yes, Sir," Jack sighed.

"Dismissed," Hammond told the team.

Sam hovered behind for a few moments. "Sir," she said. "The tower on P8H-112; did we at least get something from there?"

"The survey team assures me that there is a lot that we can use," Hammond replied. "Captain Kawalsky and Dr Collister appear to have been correct in their identification of the planet."

Sam nodded. "I'm glad to hear that, Sir."

Hammond nodded his understanding. "In the event that we don't find the Captain, I'll take comfort in knowing that she didn't die over a mistake," he agreed. "But for now, I'm still hoping to bring her back."

"Yes, Sir," Sam agreed.

*

Chimé

Amy was pretty certain that she had never worked with a less cohesive group, or at least not since she and Nancy Hale had been partnered with Casey and Haley Galt in high school chemistry class. At least this time no-one was blowing up anything that they were not supposed to, but the atmosphere was still tense and Claire Tobias clearly still wanted to kill her as much as Haley had done. She also had an obsession with the sins of SG-1 that set her starkly at odds with both Amy and Meyn'auc. Fortunately the team had reached an uneasy balance, and the odds of them completing the mission without killing each other was at least fifty-fifty by now.

Meyn'auc's control of the group had been cemented by the support of Seln'auc as much as anything. The former Corvus Guard controlled the transportation, the ship that was to carry them on the mission, and if anyone wanted to escape alive, they needed to keep the wheelman sweet. Sar'yan had only grudgingly accepted Meyn'auc, but once Li had given his approval the older Jaffa had fallen into line and proven quite cooperative. Rayker seemed unconcerned who was in charge, and Karloth said that he was just glad someone was. Tobias had been difficult, transferring her hatred of the SGC to Amy and whoever she supported. In the end it was Karloth who had talked her around, and now the two of them seemed very tight. Amy wondered idly if they were sleeping together, but so long as they were working with the rest of them, she honestly did not care.

"There has been a change of plan," Li said, without preamble. He had been away conferring with his master for the last day, and in his absence no-one had tried to do anyone else in, which Amy took as a positive sign. Seln'auc had also been absent, working on the ship, and now she was regarded with almost as much suspicion as Amy was.

"What sort of change?" Meyn'auc asked, warily, probably expecting Li to tell them that the target had been moved to the Goa'uld equivalent of Fort Knox.

"We need to leave within the hour," Li replied. "We have just learned that Anubis is close to activating the device, so there is no time to lose."

"That's great," Amy said. "It would be even better if we had a plan though." She sighed. "Did you at least manage to get us the intelligence you promised?"

"I did," Li replied, placing a small hologram projector on the table. A plan a of Goa'uld base appeared.

Seln'auc frowned. "This facility is over three hundred years old," she said. "Anubis must have made alterations to the security systems."

"We are certain that he has done," Li admitted. "But..."

"Oh, that's peachy," Tobias grumbled.

"Seln'auc," Meyn'auc said. "Tell us what we are looking at."

Seln'auc nodded. "This is a research facility of a fairly standard design dating from the heyday of the Second Dynasty. It is built to house a team of up to six Goa'uld scholars, a Goa'uld security chief, a section of Jaffa warriors and up to five servants for each Goa'uld. As are most Goa'uld structures, the facility is divided into the sacred space, and the profane."

Amy pointed at the image. "I take it that the profane are these smaller buildings at the front, while the sacred space is in these honking great things back here?" She asked.

"That is correct," Seln'auc replied, having adjusted herself quite well to the Tau'ri's mode of speech. "The pyramid is the place of dwelling and recreation for the Goa'uld, and is connected by this hypostyle hall to the laboratory." She indicated the second of the two large structures, a large, octagonal building with a pyramidal roof.

"And the others?" Tobias asked.

"Servants quarters," Seln'auc replied, indicating a long, thin building, before moving on to point at a larger but more squat edifice with an open courtyard in the centre. "And the garrison house. Both connect to the hypostyle hall, but not directly to each other. There's an external entrance to each building. There is also a cargo landing field at the front of the facility."

"The servants quarters will be least guarded," Rayker suggested. "We can enter that way."

Tobias shook her head. "Too many people; too much risk of an alarm."

"I agree," Amy said.

"You think straight in through the lab?" Tobias asked.

"No," Amy replied. "I think the pyramid." She paused to let her words sink in – and yes, she admitted to herself, for dramatic effect – before continuing: "Six Goa'uld in a thing that size? If we do run into anyone – and it's likely we won't – we can drop them and no-one's the wiser. If the Illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator is in the lab then that will be the most heavily guarded entrance."

"But the residents of the pyramid are all Goa'uld," Meyn'auc said. "The Jaffa will defend them above all."

Amy shook her head. "Maybe they would have done, but...Anubis is different. Even behind that mask...I've only seen video, but I'm pretty sure his host isn't human, and that sets him apart from other Goa'uld. We've seen him playing the one god card with his Jaffa, making sure they have no fear of whacking his enemies. You want to know why the System Lords can't beat him?" She asked, rhetorically. "It's not because he has a technological edge, so much as because he's changing the rules. Mark my words," she concluded. "The MacGuffin gets more security than the people making it work."

"Our limited intelligence regarding the deployment of Anubis' troops suggests that Captain Kawalsky is correct," Li told them. "There are two sections of Anubis' Black Guard on the planet Yeth, one guarding the Stargate, the other the facility. The laboratory is most heavily guarded, and of the researchers only one is well-protected; a Goa'uld named Argus."

"Argus?" Amy demanded. "That weasel gets the VIP treatment?"

"He may not be much of a God," Seln'auc said. "But he is a highly skilled engineer."

"Wonder how he ended up on team Anubis?" Amy mused.

"For now that is unimportant," Meyn'auc said. She drummed her fingers on the table. "Security control?" She asked.

"Here," Seln'auc replied, pointing to a chamber within the pyramid. "But it will not be easy to reach."

"I don't know about that," Amy said. "What's this room next to it?"

"Just a storeroom."

"A storeroom next to an external wall," Amy amended, looking at the Tollan, Karloth.

"If my effectors are returned to me..."

"They will be," Li promised.

"Then I can pass through the wall and reach the control room easily. It should also be possible for me to gain control of the room."

Meyn'auc nodded once. "Alright," she said. "How about this. Lohesh; can you get into the hypostyle hall?"

"It is being easy," Lohesh promised. "I am scaling the wall and dropping into the courtyard."

"Good," Meyn'auc commended. "Then here is the plan. We attack on four fronts: Karloth will secure the control room and deactivate automatic security, while Rayker sets a charge on the refuelling pump at the cargo field to provide us with a diversion. Lohesh, you will enter the hypostyle hall and work through the pyramid, while the rest of us take the main entrance. You will disable any guards you come across, as quickly and quietly as possible, and we will meet up just inside. If we set off any alarms, you should be in place to surprise anyone who tries to ambush us.

"Seln'auc; you will stay with your ship in case we need a swift escape," Meyn'auc continued. "That means you will be our technician, Tobias. You will have to get us through the outer door and probably the laboratory door as well."

"Piece of cake," Tobias assured her.

"It sounds almost too easy," Amy said.

"There is more to it," Meyn'auc assured her. "Karloth will provide us with our timing by letting us know when Argus is on his way out. As he passes through the hypostyle, Lohesh will strike, and disable he and his guards with a shock grenade. That should take out a good portion of the garrison for twenty minutes at least and the doors of the lab will be heavy enough that those within will never know what happened. Then Rayker will launch his distraction, drawing off more of the Jaffa. That will allow us to strike the lab at its most vulnerable.

"We will grab the artefact, and leave via the servants quarters," she finished. "On the way out we won't care about raising alarms, and with any luck the bulk of the guard will still be watching the outer door of the lab."

"It still seems odd that there is so little protection for something so valuable," Amy said.

"There will be other warriors nearby," Li said. "But Anubis wishes to avoid attracting attention to this base. If you are swift, then there will be no time for reinforcements to arrive. If you dally however..."

"We get the picture," Amy assured him.

"Our weapons?" Meyn'auc asked Li.

"Your gear is in the teltac. All of it," he added, pointedly.

"Thank you, Xu," Meyn'auc said. "Then let us proceed."

The team grabbed the little that they had to carry, and started out for the teltac. Li caught Amy's eye however, and motioned for her to stay behind.

"Don't worry," she assured him. "I haven't forgotten why I'm here. Yu knew when he asked me that I wouldn't bring him the device, but I will make sure Anubis doesn't have it. Just...promise me that the others will get their freedom and their rewards, even if I destroy the device."

"You have my word," Li replied. "If you will make me a promise in return."

"What promise?" She asked, warily.

"Be careful," he replied.

Amy tried to look nonchalant. "I'm always careful," she assured him.

"Always?" Li reached out, and touched his finger to the tiny, pale scar at the right-hand corner of her mouth; a scar so small that most people never noticed it.

Amy meant to push his hand away, but for some reason she did not. Perhaps because she was too busy not shivering at the touch. "That was nothing," she assured him, refusing to meet his eyes and struggling to control her voice. It was a lie; the scar was thankfully the only external mark left from the savage beating she had suffered at the hands of the Harcesis, Hel, but the experience had put her in hospital for a week.

"Amy..." Li began.

"Don't," she said.

"Don't...?"

"Don't call me Amy," she begged him.

Li's finger traced back and up along her jaw until his hand was cupping her face.

"Please, stop," Amy moaned, pressing her cheek against his palm.

"Why?"

"Because I like it," she choked, disgusted at herself.

They kissed, an expression of burning need tempered by a gentle respect. It was the kind of kiss Amy never believed in movies, and it left her flushed and breathless. Half of her wanted to pull away from Li, while the other half never wanted him to stop kissing her. If he never stopped, she would not have to think about it. If she never had to think about it, she never had to face the fact that her hand was in his hair, and she had been kissing him just as much as he was kissing her.

"Li..." She began, forgetting that he was supposed to be Xu, and failing to find anything to say besides his name.

"Amy," he whispered, and apparently he had forgotten as well, because his voice was that of the Goa'uld, not the host. Amy felt her heart churn with conflicting emotion at the realisation that the sonorous tone did nothing to disgust her.

"This is wrong," she insisted.

"Then lower your hand."

Amy tried to, but her hand seemed to have other ideas. It remained firmly enmeshed in Li's hair, drawing him into another kiss.

"I don't want this," she gasped.

"Nor do I," he replied. "I am Goa'uld. One of the Ba Xian. I have no wish to fall in love with a human, but I can not help myself." He drew back far enough that he could look her in the eyes. "Last night I lay in a sarcophagus for the first time in twenty years..."

"Twenty years?" Amy was surprised. "I thought that the Goa'uld used the sarcophagus regularly."

Li shook his head. "It dulls the wits and slows the reflexes," he explained. "But it also numbs the heart. I lay within to try and drive out the thoughts of you that have plagued me since the moment I first touched you, but it was not enough. You are under my skin, Amy, and I can not get rid of you."

"This is wrong," she repeated.

"I know," he agreed. "But I can not help myself. I see you everywhere I look, I hear your voice when I am alone, I feel your touch, constantly, and I do not know why. Everything about you is infuriating: Your casual manner; your confounding speech and your 'pop culture riffs'; your 'Illudium Q-36 exploding space modulators' and your 'who is on first'. Whenever you speak I think I am growing angry with you, but then I find that it is not rage but...something quite different."

"I...We have to go," Amy finished, lamely, grasping the only excuse that came to hand. "I can't...not now."

"Of course," he said, regretfully. "We must go. But afterwards, we must speak of this."

Amy nodded, reluctantly. "Yes; we must."

"You must not die therefore," he enjoined her.

"I'll take that as a 'good luck'," she assured him. "Thank you."

"I shall not be there," he reminded her. "If you are successful I shall meet you on Zolash, but I...I want to be able protect you," he admitted.

"I won't need protecting," she promised, trying to ease his concerns. "Meyn'auc's plan is solid, and so long as nothing entirely unexpected shows up, we'll be fine."

*

Earth

"Intelligence reports show that Anubis has gained possession of a new weapon; possibly salvaged from a cache of Ancient technology." Jena of the Tok'ra stood in front of the briefing room screen. She was apparently something of a trendsetter, eschewing the earth-tone pyjamas favoured by the Tok'ra of late in favour of black suede pants with matching leather boots and jacket. Her host was an attractive young woman with a boyish cut to her ash-blonde hair, and soulful grey eyes.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "So this would be another of those instances in which you find out there's trouble and want us to do something about it?"

"In essence, yes," the woman replied. "As you know, the Tok'ra currently lack the resources to mount any kind of assault in force, and our attempts to infiltrate the ranks of Anubis' supporters have all ended in failure, and most often death. Just retrieving this information led to the death of my last partner, Yorek."

"Your partner?"

"My host, if you prefer."

"What is this weapon?" Sam asked, heading off her CO's attempt to carry on an old argument. Technically it was insubordination, but she knew how far she could push that line, and it was a lot further than this.

"We do not know," Jena admitted. "However, the System Lords have been growing recalcitrant of late. Support for Lord Yu is growing, albeit gradually, and Anubis has recently offered them a show of great strength. He was vague about the form that display would take, and we believe that he has several plans in progress. This weapon is one of them."

"And what makes this particular weapon worth special attention?"

"Nothing," Jena replied. "Except that we know where this one is located. It is being held in a lightly guarded and carefully concealed facility on the planet Yeth while engineers restore it to working order, which gives us a chance."

"Us?" Jack asked.

"You," Jena admitted. "I would like to accompany you, but my new partner and I are not yet able to act with complete synergy."

"Will there not be greater forces awaiting any alert from the facility?" Teal'c asked.

"Without question," Jena replied. "The strike must be swift, and the Chappa'ai should be kept open to prevent reinforcements arriving that way."

"I'm sending SG units one and five," General Hammond said. "I've also recalled Lieutenant Frost from 112 and the Falcon prototype is being fitted for target painting. You'll maintain an open return wormhole after you arrive, but the iris will be closed until we receive an IDC code. If possible you'll capture this device and bring it back to the SGC; if not, destroy it using whatever means necessary."

"Yes, Sir," Jack replied. "Just to be clear though, General; we're bringing the device to Earth; not to the Tok'ra?"

"That's correct," Hammond affirmed.

"Although the Tok'ra will be pleased to lend our assistance to any attempts to determine the nature of the weapon and the means of operation," Jena assured them.

"I'm sure they will," Hammond replied. "Gear up; you have a go at thirteen-hundred."

As the others gathered their things and headed out, Jack approached the Tok'ra representative. "So," he said. "How's it working out for ya?"

Jena understood his meaning, and moved aside to let her host speak. "It is good," she assured him.

"Well; it's good to know that they value human operatives for something more than their utility as a host," Jack scoffed, angrily, unable to restrain his annoyance. "You've been with them, what? Five months before they decided you didn't have anything to offer solo?"

"Jack, please," the host said, speaking in a soothing tone.

"I'm sorry, Shallan," Jack said. "I just..."

"I understand," she assured him. "I loved Kanan, but now I have to live with Jena's anger at what he did. He broke the one rule that the Tok'ra hold sacred above all others, and while they try to respect his motives, they revile him for what he did to you. But even knowing this, I was willing to become a host myself." She laughed, softly. "I practically had to beg them to allow it," she said. "Even when Jena was dying. They did not trust my motives, and they wanted to keep me solo, so that I could operate disguised as a servant or peasant."

"And now?"

"Now, I am part of the most beautiful partnership imaginable," Shallan told him. "I am so sorry that Kanan did what he did. I wish that you could have known..." She smiled, sadly.

"I'll live," Jack said, stiffly.

"I'm sorry," Shallan said again. "It was because of me..."

Jack shrugged. "Apparently it's my fault as well," he told her, angrily. "In fact, it seems to be pretty much everyone's fault except Kanan's."

"Shh," Shallan whispered, laying a hand on Jack's cheek. "It hurts them that one their own could do this thing, and so despite their anger they try to excuse...No," she said, turning her face away from Jack for a moment, her brow furrowing in concentration. "Jena wants to speak, but I doubt that you would want to hear what she has to say. As much as I loved him – as I still love him – I can not find it in me to forgive the way he used you. But no-one blames you, whatever they may say."

Jack sighed. "Thank you," he said.

"Thank you," Shallan replied. "After all, it was not Kanan in the end who took me out of Baal's keeping."

"Any time," Jack assured her.

Shallan gave a weary smile. "I may have to hold you to that," she reminded him.

"Me and my big mouth," he replied. "Well, I guess we'll see you when we get back."

"Good luck," she said.

*

Zolash

The rag-tag strike team went from Chimé to Tarma by teltac, and then by Stargate to Zolash, a planet within a few parsecs of Yeth. During her absence from Chimé, Seln'auc had brought her ship to Zolash, and Li had brought supplies for the mission. Amy had been expecting a teltac, so she was taken aback when Seln'auc's whispered password revealed the massive bulk of an al'kesh bomber. Amy had always felt that 'bomber' did not do justice to a vessel of this size; she preferred the alternate 'cruiser'.

"See; that's rather more firepower than we were counting on," she said.

"Not much more," Seln'auc assured her. "Her torpedo and bomb bays were not loaded for attack when I stole her, and so her only weapons are the turret cannons."

Their personal gear and weapons had been placed on board, and there was a tense moment as the team geared up. Suddenly they had gone from unarmed truce to heavily armed standoff.

Tobias had clearly traded in her Earth-made weapons for a brutal-looking accelerated particle pistol at some stage, and Rayker carried a heavy carbine in addition to an array of vials and packs of explosives. Lohesh added a set of funky-looking knives and an outlandish long-arm – something like a cross between a Klingon bat'leh and a sharpened staff weapon – to the spikes and blades that already jutted fiercely from his trenoth. He grinned at Amy when he saw her warily eyeing the weapon, and she shivered. Karloth's gear consisted of two armbands, a belt, a small, wedge-shaped handgun, and a gauntlet that looked like a virtual reality controller, yet Amy suspected that he was the most heavily armed of them all.

The three Jaffa took up the familiar staffs and zat'nik'tels of their caste, and had donned three very different sets of armour. Amy recognised the black carapace of Seln'auc's Raven armour, while Meyn'auc donned the familiar silver of the Horus Guard, embellished with the addition of her hand device. Sar'yan's armour was of an unknown design; very dark green and patterned with scales. He did not wear a helmet-collar, and Amy assumed that this meant he was never part of his lord's elite guard. Their hair grown out, faces unwashed and armour mismatched, the trio would certainly look more like Earth's allies, the rebel Jaffa, than the forces of any System Lord.

Carrying only a half-empty pistol and a zat, Amy felt rather hopelessly outmatched.

"These are for you," Li told her, opening a case.

"Where did these come from?" Amy demanded, picking up the P90 that lay within. There were at least thirty spare clips, as well as a number of grenades and plenty of reloads for her pistol.

"They were left behind when the rebel Jaffa under the command of Imhotep fled their camp," Li explained. "None were slain in their taking."

"Thank you," she said.

"I will hope to see you here in three days," he said.

Amy nodded.

"Stow your arms," Meyn'auc ordered, leading by example. "There are lockers for anything other than the staff weapons. Master Xu, with your leave?"

Li nodded. "And my blessings," he said. He bowed gravely to the team then left the al'kesh.

*

Yeth

The security of the facility on Yeth was in the hands of a Goa'uld named Unut. One of Osiris' oldest and most faithful followers, she had spent millennia in hiding, and had not survived by being slow-witted. An hour ago, the Jaffa manning the monitoring station had reported an anomalous sensor reading; an energy spike which could have indicated the opening of a hyperspace window. No vessel had been spotted, but if it had been under cloak then a small ship could have got behind the planet in time to avoid the scanners. She had signalled for her reinforcements to stand ready, and stepped up the readiness of her troops, unwilling to let carelessness destroy her.

"Mistress!"

Unut turned at the warning cry, in time to see the two Jaffa guards shot down by a slim, grey-clad young man. The Jaffa technician leaped up from his station, but a blast of energy cut him down. Unut put out her hand, but the blast of her ribbon device was dissipated by an unseen shield.

Unut felt a chill of fear, and reached for the alarm trigger.

"Now." Karloth's voice, relayed over the field communicator, had a cold, flat quality that made Amy shudder.

As one, Meyn'auc and Sar'yan rose up from cover and fired, their staff blasts cutting down the guards at the portico temple of the pyramid.

"Tobias," Meyn'auc ordered, and the engineer ran forward, Amy at her side, to crack the lock on the main door. Whatever her personal feelings about the woman, Amy had to admire the other woman's quick efficiency, as she levered open a panel with her knife and started cutting and splicing the optic filaments within.

Meyn'auc and Sar'yan hurried over. The panel sparked a little, then the door shuddered open.

Amy dropped to a crouch, directing her weapon under the door. "Clear," she confirmed.

The four of them moved swiftly through the pyramid, keeping to the outer circuit instead of risking the central residence, where any Goa'uld not currently resting – and their guards – would be. Up ahead they heard a whistle, and a Jaffa came sailing into view, a jagged blade that Amy recognised as the head of Lohesh's spear imbedded in his sternum. He struck the wall and slid down to lie very still. Lohesh followed, at a more leisurely pace.

"All clear?" Meyn'auc asked.

"From here to the laboratory the guards are being dead," he confirmed. With a twist and a pull and a horrid sucking noise, he pulled the blade out of the Jaffa. He wiped it clean on his victim's tunic and reattached it to his spear.

"Okay then," Tobias began. "Let's..." She broke off as a blood-curdling shriek echoed through the corridors.

"Move!" Meyn'auc ordered. With reasonably well-oiled precision, they followed the ongoing noise towards the residential area, on the look out for any surviving guards who might have been alerted by the cries of inhuman agony.

Amy was leading the way as they reached a large, open room which appeared to serve as a communal area. Three Goa'uld lay contorted in death on the silk couches and expensive oriental rugs, along with three Jaffa and five servants. A fourth Goa'uld still lived, and was writhing in agony in the grip of some manner of forcefield. Karloth stood over him, a look of cold glee in his eyes, as the Goa'uld stretched out a hand in supplication.

Without a moment's hesitation, Meyn'auc raised her staff weapon and shot the Goa'uld through the neck.

Karloth rounded on her in anger. "Do not interfere!" He snarled.

Meyn'auc ignored him. "Sar'yan; check the control room." Only once the other Jaffa had gone did Meyn'auc turn to Karloth. "Do not speak to me that way," she growled. "I am in command of this mission, and you have violated my trust. Return to the ship, at once, and be glad I don't leave you here."

Karloth looked incredulous. "What?" He demanded, angrily. "You would punish me for killing Goa'uld? They are an abomination, and all those touched by them must die."

Amy was horrified. Karloth had seemed so quiet, so calm; so Tollan.

"I do not care about your political views," Meyn'auc told him. "This was supposed to be a quick, quiet raid; not an extended torture session. If we are lucky, you haven't killed us all, but I wouldn't bet on it."

Karloth looked about to respond, but stopped, looking not at Meyn'auc, but to her left. Amy sneaked a glance, and saw Tobias shaking her head, gently. She felt a touch of concern as she realised that Karloth was looking to Tobias, and not to Meyn'auc, for instructions. So much for the chain of command.

"Go," Meyn'auc whispered.

"Yes, Ma'am." Karloth scowled, but nevertheless he went.

Sar'yan returned, his face pale. "Ye Gods," he whispered, sounding nauseous. "What he did to her..."

"Jaffa, kree!" Meyn'auc snapped, snapping him back to himself. "Was an alarm raised?"

"No," Sar'yan replied. "No alarm."

"Wonder what that guy did to him," Tobias mused, looking down at the dead Goa'uld. "He didn't torture any of the others."

Amy looked over the scene and a sick certainty rose up inside her. "He didn't die," she said.

"Huh."

"He got tortured because he was the last one left alive," Amy explained. "He didn't want to torture this guy specifically; he just wanted to torture someone, and he had to kill the rest first."

"How do you know?" Tobias asked.

"I..." Amy stopped, not wanting the engineer to know about her possession. "I've seen it before. It's a Goa'uld terror tactic. Random raids, where one person is left alive to be tortured after the others have been killed, so when anyone comes they find..." She swallowed hard. "It's the look on their face that's the worst."

Meyn'auc put her hand on Amy's arm. "We are wasting time," she said. "We must go."

Amy nodded. "Yes," she said, shaking off Thoth's memories, and the feeling of a victim's mind cracking beneath the beam of a hand device. She swallowed again, tasting bile, and wished that she only remembered the outcome of the terror raids she had described.

*

The Jaffa at the Gate were surprised by sudden opening, but far more so by what emerged. The Falcon was unlike anything that they had seen before, and for a few critical moments they were thrown. Ordinarily they might have attacked what they did not know, but their master, Lord Anubis, had many strange machines at his disposal. By the time they snapped out of the momentary daze, the laser rangefinder on the underside of the Falcon had marked out the two cannon emplacements for the missiles that followed it through the Gate. By the time the Jaffa had recovered from that assault the marines of SG-5 were emerging from the event horizon, putting down the remaining Jaffa with controlled bursts from their M4 carbines, supported by fire from the Falcon's adapted glider cannon.

Once the Gate was secured, SG-1 followed, escorting Lieutenant Frost and the Falcon's mobile control centre. The wormhole collapsed, and Sergeant Fowler immediately dialled Earth.

"Parker, Frost and Fowler, hold the Gate," Colonel O'Neill ordered. "Wayne and Thomas you're with SG-1."

"If there's no trouble, should we examine the bodies to assess the Falcon's shot placement?" Frost asked.

"You're a very creepy person," Jack told her.

"Sorry, Sir," Frost replied, chastened. "I just...I'm mostly a test pilot, and with the goggles it all seems a little unreal. I don't mean to be callous."

"That's okay, Lieutenant," Jack assured her. "But no, let's not be checking the corpses of our enemies to see how accurately we killed them."

"I'd call this a successful test of the UAV's assault role though," Jonas noted.

"What you can do," Jack added, turning to Major Parker. "Is get the corpses out of the way, and make sure all snakes are present and dead."

"Yes, Sir," Parker responded.

"Other than that, just hold the fort, keep the Gate open, and be ready to cover our retreat."

*

"I just realised something," Amy said, nervously, as they approached the door of the lab. The corridor was full of unconscious Jaffa. "I hadn't caught it before because I was kind of in shock, but..." She shook her head. "Where's the kaboom?"

"Kaboom?" Meyn'auc asked.

"There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom," Amy explained. "From the landing field."

"You think Rayker was captured?"

"Or killed. Either way though, there should have been an alarm."

"Well, maybe..." Meyn'auc broke off suddenly, and swept her staff weapon to the ready. "Get up!" She ordered. "Now!"

Slowly, one of the recumbent figures rose to his feet.

"Argus," Amy said, recognising him from Dahkleh.

"How useful," Meyn'auc said. "Open the lab door."

"I can not," the engineer told her. "In the event of an incursion the laboratory is locked down."

"No-one's set off an alarm yet," Amy pointed out.

"They will have. You cannot escape!"

"So you're saying you're pretty much worthless?" Tobias asked, raising her weapon.

"No!" Argus cried, cringing away. "Alright, I'll do it." He scurried to the door. Amy felt nothing but disgust for the little man; a snivelling coward who still considered himself part of the master race.

Sar'yan and Meyn'auc stepped up next to Argus, weapons held at the ready, while Lohesh crouched behind them. The door slid open and the two Jaffa moved forward. Lohesh sprang, driving Argus through the door ahead of them and slamming him to the ground, and Amy and Tobias followed. The two Goa'uld in the lab were surprised by this sudden intrusion, as were their Jaffa guards, but there were substantially more of them than had been anticipated. Without Rayker's diversion, the entire Garrison assigned to the lab were still here: nine Jaffa in all. As the intruders entered the guards turned towards the door, and a clear cylinder descended over something in the middle of the lab.

The fire fight was brief and fierce. Sar'yan moved forward, deliberately making himself the target. He and Meyn'auc fought with a similar grace, always in motion, but where she garnered nothing worse than a grazing hit along the flank of her armour, Sar'yan took a staff blast solidly to his shoulder. Tobias returned fire with her accelerated particle weapon, but Amy did not bother with her P90, she simply tossed a grenade. The blast took out a gaggle of enemies, and Lohesh sprang among the remainder, tearing and slicing with brutal effectiveness.

"Clear!" Amy declared, checking the corners for stragglers.

"Is this it?" Sar'yan gasped, propping himself on a lab bench next to the cylinder.

Amy went over and looked at what the cylinder was protecting. Resting on a pedestal was the device. It did not look much, but the style was distinctively that of the Ancients. The device itself sat in a cradle, inscribed with Ancient script. In form, it was a flat, round, metal box, with a screen displaying a star-chart of some kind and a handle at each side. A small red icon was flashing on the star chart, and lines of Ancient script ran across the screen. At the top of the device a piece of what was clearly Goa'uld technology had been rather crudely spliced into the original mechanism.

"How do we open that?" Tobias asked, indicating the cylinder.

"Argus," Amy suggested.

"I will never betray My Lord Anubis," the engineer panted, battered and terrified from his ordeal.

Meyn'auc never even looked at him. "Lohesh," she said. "Tear his limbs off one at a time."

The Guyen-tor growled, and the engineer sobbed. "Alright," he said. "Just don't hurt me."

*

Jack led his team around the landing field, where a handful of Jaffa milled around a teltac, and up to the entrance to the servants' quarters. So far, the Tok'ra intelligence on the layout had been accurate, and if that held then there would be anything up to thirty servants inside.

"Zats," he whispered.

"Zats?" Sergeant Thomas asked, baffled, although he slung his carbine and drew the Goa'uld sidearm form his hip anyway.

"Yes," Jack replied. "Zats. Let's not butcher any more hapless servants than we have to. Teal'c." He motioned for the Jaffa to take the far side of the door, leaving his staff weapon with Jonas for the moment. He waited for Sam – crouched by the door's control panel – to give a signal, then counted down on his fingers.

On zero, Sam tripped the circuit, and the door opened. Jack and Teal'c stepped in, zats ready. They saw no-one, and Jack motioned his team in. They worked their way cautiously down the corridor, until they came to an open door. Motioning the others to wait, stepped out, and froze.

"Oh...God," he whispered.

Sam joined him, and gasped in horror. Jack was not surprised; even he, with his sometimes unsavoury experiences in black ops, was horrified.

"Go'mik," Teal'c added.

"Huh?" Jack asked.

"Literal translation: Holy crap," Jonas provided, his voice unnaturally calm, as though he were shocked beyond an emotional response.

Captain Wayne stepped forward. "What...?"

"Don't!" Sam said, blocking his way. "Just keep going."

Wayne read the horror on her face, and did not argue. He and Thomas just went on down the corridor and the others followed.

Jack was last to leave. He stared a moment longer at the scene, feeling that it was important to remember this. He did not know what was worse: The almost unmarked bodies, contorted in agony, or the woman who had clearly been so brutally sliced with a blade; the fact that none of the dead had been armed, or the fact that some of them had been little more than girls and boys; the number of bodies, or the cold thoroughness indicated by the effort of killing each and every one of them.

The most horrible thing however, without a doubt in Jack's mind, was the ordinariness of the setting. The room where the servants had been killed had tables and chairs, closets and a counter. Searing itself most clearly in Jack's mind was the pot of coffee, boiling over on a stove. It was a scene he could relate to directly; that he could have pictured himself as being part of. A break room at work, like the one in the diner he had worked one summer, where the hard-working staff could come and relax between shifts. It was a scene which left him no room for detachment; no way to say 'these people served the Goa'uld; they weren't like us'. These were regular Joes, not even soldiers, and they had been slaughtered like cattle.

"Do you think someone beat us to it?" Sam asked, as Jack emerged.

"Maybe," he replied. "But the landing field looked undisturbed. My guess is they're not finished." He took out his radio. "Parker."

"Yes, Sir."

"We have another set of intruders on the base," Jack said. "Not Jaffa," he added, looking to Teal'c who nodded his confirmation. Jaffa might have killed the servants, but not like that. "If you see anyone, shoot to kill." He looked up, addressing his instructions to the people with him as well as to Parker. "Shoot to kill a lot."

"Understood," Parker assured him.

"Look sharp," Jack told his team. "These bastards are dangerous, and I want them dead."

*

Everyone was becoming fidgety by the time the cylinder rose, and Tobias especially looked about ready to pop a cap in Argus' head and take her chances cracking the control circuit.

"D-done," the Goa'uld stammered.

"Lohesh," Meyn'auc said, and the Guyen-tor stepped up, handed his spear to Meyn'auc, and lifted the device from its cradle.

"Let's go," Tobias suggested.

"Wait!" Amy interrupted. She had been studying the writing on the cradle while Argus worked, without much success, but now she could see that it continued on the base. She read as fast as she could, but her knowledge of Ancient dialects was limited to what little she had learned from Daniel, and the slightly more substantial scraps that she retained from Thoth's memories.

"Bring it with you," Meyn'auc suggested.

"No," Amy said. "We can't...We have to destroy it."

"Are you insane?" Tobias asked. "Do you know what we're being paid for this thing?"

"We can't let it fall into anyone's hands; not now it's working."

"We do not have time to discuss it here," Meyn'auc told her.

"Yes," Tobias agreed. "Let's go!"

"I...Alright," Amy agreed, but she stopped to lift the pedestal first.

They headed for the door, Lohesh in the lead.

"Let me go first," Sar'yan suggested.

"That is being wise," Lohesh agreed.

The Jaffa stepped past, Tobias moving up to walk beside him. As they left the lab, Tobias suddenly turned, slamming her hand into the panel.

"Tobias, wait!" Amy called out, less because she thought the woman would listen than to warn the others.

Sar'yan began to turn towards Tobias, but as the door came down, Amy saw Rayker step out from the columns of the hypostyle hall and fire a volley of explosive shells into the belly of the already-injured Jaffa.

"No!" Meyn'auc roared, but by the time she reached the door it had closed. Sparks exploded from the control panel, and it made no response as Meyn'auc pummelled it in fury. "Bastards!" She roared. "Mik'ta-ha!"

"What is happening?" Argus demanded.

"They've locked us in," Amy said.

"There is also the outer door," the Goa'uld suggested.

"No," Amy replied. "When Rayker wasn't setting up his diversion, I'd bet real money he was booby-trapping the outer door."

"What do we do?" Argus cried.

"Can you override the door?" Meyn'auc asked.

"Maybe."

"Then try." She gave a sudden cry of wordless rage and kicked the door with all her might. "Some commander."

"Don't put yourself down," Amy replied. "You did good." She took out her communicator. "Seln'auc," she said. "Can you hear me, Seln'auc?" The communicator only hissed in response.

"Augh! That bitch!" Meyn'auc swore. "I was so certain of her. If I ever get my hands on her, the punishment I inflict will live in legend!"

"Don't condemn her yet," Amy advised. "We don't know..." She stopped, and looked in horror at the cradle in her arms. "Punishment," she said. "That's it. 'Punitive'. That must mean..." The colour drained from her face.

"What?" Meyn'auc asked.

"I think I'm going to be sick" Amy said.

*

"Who did this?" Sam wondered aloud.

"Who could do this?" Jack wondered. "I'd think Anubis and his ninjas, except that this is Anubis' base."

"Maybe he's wiping out anyone who knew the secret of his superweapon," Jonas suggested. "I mean, he acts like a bad supervillain the rest of the..." He broke off as he tripped over another body. "I never thought dead Goa'uld would be so upsetting."

"Certainly the intruders must be warriors of unusual skill," Teal'c said, his words practical but even he struggling to maintain his composure. "Or someone trusted by the guards here."

"Let's just get on with this," Jack suggested. "This place give me the creeps."

"The lab should be this way," Sam said.

*

The lab door hissed open. Meyn'auc raised her staff weapon, as a bloodied figure staggered in, almost filling the doorway.

"Lohesh?" Meyn'auc asked.

The Guyen-tor choked, coughing up blood. "I...am failing you," he gasped.

There was a rattle of automatic fire, and Lohesh stumbled, falling forward. Meyn'auc caught and held him, as Argus curled into a ball and Amy stepped up to the door. Another burst of fire forced her to duck back, but she risked another look to confirm what she thought she had seen.

"Colonel O'Neill!" She called. "Don't shoot!"

"Kawalsky?" Jack's voice floated down the hypostyle hall.

"It's all clear for now," Amy said, stepping out. "But I'm glad you're here."

Jack came up to her. "Um...Likewise, but...why?"

"We were captured," Meyn'auc explained, pushing Lohesh onto his back. "A Goa'uld named Lo Pan wanted us to retrieve an item in return for our freedom. Hello, Colonel O'Neill."

"Ah, hi."

"Master Teal'c." Meyn'auc bowed in great respect.

"Meyn'auc."

Amy grimaced. "Actually, Sir, it's way more complicated, but we have bigger problems right now. How is he?" She asked Meyn'auc.

"Not good," the Jaffa replied.

"He's one of yours?" Sam asked. "Oh, God; I'm sorry."

"You are not worrying," Lohesh assured her. "Your weapon is not harming me; the trenoth is protecting me, although I am dying already. I am being shot in the back when I am trying to capture Rayker and Tobias; with what weapon I am not knowing."

"Well there's someone else around here," Jonas told them. "We found dozens of corpses; no sign of injuries on most of them."

"Ah, crap," Amy muttered. "Karloth."

"Who?" Jack asked.

"A Tollan," Amy explained. "We need to move fast. Meyn'auc sent Karloth back to the ship, so they could be on their way any moment. Can we leave someone with Meyn'auc to look after Lohesh and Sar'yan. I don't want to leave them for Anubis."

Jack nodded. "Sure. Wayne, Thomas."

"Yes, Sir," Wayne acknowledged.

"But you owe me a very detailed explanation," Jack assured her.

"I look forward to it," Amy lied. "Argus; shake a leg or I'll shoot it off."

*

Karloth reached the ship first, Rayker stumbling behind with the device and Tobias running escort. Tobias was almost spent by the time she made it, and wondered how Karloth could have made the run three times in short order: Once to secure the ship, once to assist in the snatch, and once to return here and prepare for launch.

"The other Jaffa?" Tobias asked.

"She managed to get to a lifepod and jettison," Karloth replied. "But they were not designed to launch in this manner. I regret that I was unable to assure her death however."

"Doesn't matter," Tobias said, as Rayker staggered past them. "She's not important."

"All those touched by the Goa'uld must die," Karloth insisted.

Tobias smiled, nastily. "Dedication," she said. "I like that in a man." She punched the door control, then called down the companionway. "Rayker; get us airborne. We'll stow the package."

*

"Yu?" Jack asked, incredulously. "He set all this up? He couldn't have just dropped us a hint? I mean, we've done it for him."

"He doesn't want us to have the weapon," Sam suggested. "The...what did you call it?"

"Pax Perpeti, and rightly so," Amy assured her. When we find it, we have to destroy it. It's too dangerous to..."

Up ahead of them, Teal'c raised a hand in warning. Jack motioned to Sam, and the two of them swung around to cover the Jaffa, leaving Jonas and Amy in charge of Argus.

"It is too late to stop him," Argus said. "The Great Anubis will conquer all."

"Uh-huh," Amy said.

"So is that why you switched sides?" Jonas asked.

Amy smiled at Argus' discomfort. "Or is Rhea maybe snuggling up to Anubis for protection now her plan to get control of the Wadjet is kaput?"

"The Great Queen Rhea is...no longer all she once was," Argus admitted. "Her recovery from the wounds dealt by Sekhmet was incomplete. She has lost much of her memory, and is now prone to mood swings, absent-mindedness and distraction. She is convinced that Cronus lives still, and that Anubis is Apophis in disguise. Her lieutenant and the First Prime now rule in her stead for the most part, interpreting her confused commands as best they can to hide her incapacity. I fled and was captured by Anubis. Naturally I offered my services at once. Now he can at last deal with the greatest enemy of the Goa'uld, and when the Asgard..." He stopped, as though sensing he had said too much.

"What?" Jonas demanded.

"What have you done?" Amy asked, horrified.

"We shall be greatly rewarded," the Goa'uld assured her. "And you will suffer for harming us!"

"What...!?"

"Kawalsky!"

"Damnit!" Amy turned and hastened to where Jack was calling her, with Jonas following and Argus between them. A Goa'uld lifepod lay crashed on its side, and a battered Seln'auc was warily pointing a staff weapon at the members of SG-1.

"Shol'va!" Argus exclaimed.

"Oh, like you're Mr Faithful," Amy retorted. "Seln'auc; are you okay?"

"No," she replied, relaxing her grip on the weapon. "I'm battered and bruised, I have a radiation burn that my symbiote is especially slow in healing, and that oh-so superior hashak stole my ship."

"Where is your ship?" Teal'c asked.

"Just over the next rise, Master Teal'c," she replied. "I landed using only inertial resistors to reduce the noise. I don't think it's lifted off yet, but..." Even as she spoke, the air was filled with a muted roar of engines.

"What manner of ship...?" Teal'c began.

"Al'kesh," Amy replied.

"Oh boy," Jack said.

"We have to stop them," Amy insisted. "They've got the generator. If we don't get it back..."

"Don't worry," Seln'auc assured them. "They won't get far. No-one flies my baby but me. We will need a ship to go after them though."

"There was a teltac on the landing field," Sam suggested.

Amy gave a crooked smile. "Thank God Rayker was too busy stabbing us in the back to blow it up like he was supposed to," she said.

The teltac hovered overhead, and the transport rings dropped down to carry them into the cargo ship. Two bundles lay to one side of the cargo space – improvised body bags.

Jack spoke into his radio. "Parker; when Wayne and Thomas get back to you, you go ahead and get back to Earth. We'll follow as soon as we can."

"Yes, Sir," Parker replied. "And good hunting, Colonel."

Jack went forward and joined Meyn'auc, while the others settled in the cargo bay. "Sorry about Carter shooting your friend," he said.

"As he said, there was no harm done," Meyn'auc replied, sorrowfully. "I should have known," she said. "Tobias, Karloth..."

"Hey; everyone makes mistakes."

"Two people trusted me, and they were killed!" Meyn'auc snapped, on the brink of tears.

Jack took out his radio again. "Teal'c; get up here and take the controls," he said.

"What?" Meyn'auc looked baffled.

With a look of sorrow and sympathy, Jack laid a hand on Meyn'auc's shoulder, and she broke down, shaking with sobs. Jack pulled her gently into a comforting embrace, as Teal'c and Seln'auc came up to take the controls. They looked and said nothing, both far too experienced to mistake the scene for anything more than what it was; a warrior who had entered the field too young and gained authority beyond her years, if not her ability, overtaken by the realities of leadership and comforted by a more experienced commander.

"Better?" Jack asked, when the shaking had stopped.

Meyn'auc nodded, wordlessly.

"First time you've lost anyone under your command?"

"Not quite," she replied. "But the first time those deaths have come because I failed to see a threat where it should have been clear."

"These things happen," he told her. "It's always hard, and you try to stop it, but this is our business. There are risks, and they both accepted the dangers, just like you did."

"Can you learn to accept it?" She asked.

"I hope not," Jack replied. "But you can learn that it isn't always your fault."

*

Leaving Rayker to pilot the al'kesh, Tobias and Karloth took the device to the ordnance bay, where it could be securely stowed in a weapons locker. Before that however, Karloth examined the device in minute detail.

"Does it work?" Tobias demanded.

"It certainly seems to," Karloth replied. "The process by which they overrode the command codes was very elegant; Anubis is certainly more sophisticated than the average Goa'uld."

"Yeah; sophisticated enough to..." Tobias stopped. "Sorry, that was..."

"It's alright," Karloth assured her. "It is true after all."

"Well, sorry anyway," she repeated, laying a hand on his arm. "I've been on my own for a long time; not so good with people."

"You seem to be doing alright," he replied. "None of the others suspected a thing."

Tobias smirked, nastily. "Kawalsky did, but she was too busy feeling guilty for about not trusting me because I screwed up once to listen to her gut feelings."

"That does not seem to be a problem which bothers you," Karloth noted. "Guilt."

"Waste of time," Tobias replied. "Everyone's out to screw you, so you might as well have some fun screwing 'em right back," she said, reinforcing the double meaning with a rakish glance. To her annoyance, Karloth seemed too engrossed in the device to notice. "What are you doing?" She asked.

"Just checking the sub-systems," he replied.

"Speaking of screwed," she went on. "Do you think we can trust Rayker?"

Karloth shrugged. "So long as we're paying him."

Tobias nodded. "And how much will we get for this little beauty?" She asked.

Karloth looked at her and smiled. "Absolutely anything we ask," he assured her. He laughed.

"What?"

"Nothing; just the way your eyes lit up at the very thought of it: Any price we name; split two ways, of course."

"That's what worries me," she admitted. "I think Rayker's going to try and push for an equal share."

"We offered him a price and he accepted it," Karloth replied. "If he feels hard done by, he can write a song about it."

Tobias put a hand to Karloth's face. "He's dangerous," she said. "We shouldn't give him a chance to strike at us, we should hit first."

"Double-cross him?" Karloth asked, assaying an expression of shock.

Tobias raised an eyebrow, and moved a shade closer. "Why not? If we know he's going to turn on us, there's no need to feel bad about it. It's basic survival. Do unto others as they would do unto you, but do it unto them first."

"Such a cynical breed," Karloth commented, raising his hand to cover hers. He turned his head slightly to kiss her palm, and she smiled encouragingly.

"Hold tight," Rayker's voice came over the tannoy, making them both jump. "And make sure the package is stowed." Karloth strapped the Pax Perpeti down and closed the locker. "I'm initiating hyperlaunch in five seconds; three, two, one..."

Karloth frowned. "Something's wrong," he said. The lights went dead.

Tobias scowled in the dark. "Ya think?"

*

Jack looked at the al'kesh, suddenly drifting aimlessly in front of them. "What just happened?"

"I told you," Seln'auc replied. "No-one else can fly my baby. Any attempt to activate the hyperdrive without the correct authorisation code sequence results in complete shutdown of all non-emergency systems."

"What if they had bypassed the code?" Teal'c asked.

Seln'auc smiled. "Nobody bypasses a code if they do not know they have to give it. The system does not prompt the pilot to input the authorisation."

"Chel'sath," Teal'c commended.

"We must hurry," Seln'auc said. "The orbit of the ship is unstable. If I do not restore power, she will burn up in the atmosphere."

"Okay, let's move," Jack said. "And try not to hit anything vital. Jonas!" He called, as they headed for the transport rings. "You stay here and keep an eye on things. Seln'auc; you and Teal'c keep an eye on Argus."

"Why do I have to stay here?" Jonas asked.

"Because someone needs to activate the rings," Jack replied. "And no offence, but you're the one I can most afford to spare from a close-quarters fire fight." As the others gathered on the ring station, Jack turned to Jonas and whispered: "And what does 'Chel'sath' mean?"

"Very slick," Jonas replied.

"Oh."

Rayker spun around as the door to the cockpit opened.

"Hands in the air!" Jack ordered.

With a snarl, the mercenary reached for his rifle, and Jack shot him in the chest. Rayker stumbled backwards and fell to the deck.

"Where are the others?" Jack wondered.

"Probably the engine room," Seln'auc replied, shoving Rayker's body aside and taking his place at the controls. "Trying to fix the power. I will bring the engines back on-line from here and lock out the peripheral control stations."

Jack nodded. "Teal'c, stay here and give her a hand if she needs it."

"Sir," Sam began.

Jack cut her off. "We may need you in the engine room if anything goes wrong," he said.

"Yes, Sir."

"Kawalsky; you take point, and be careful. I saw what this guy can do." Jack swallowed bile. "What he's willing to do."

"Yes, Sir," Amy acknowledged. She moved off down the companionway, weapon at the ready, her comrades at her heels. She stopped, just for a moment, and allowed herself to simply enjoy the knowledge that those behind her were on the same side as her; a feeling she had hardly realised she was missing until now.

As they approached the engine room, Amy slowed her steps, moving as quietly as she could. She raised her P90 to her shoulder, and listened for any sound of movement.

"Come on," she heard Tobias saying.

"Almost there," Karloth replied.

Amy held up her hand and indicated the positions of the enemy, then she led the way through the hatch. Karloth was working at the engines, with Tobias hovering over his shoulder.

"On the deck, now!" Jack barked.

The two fugitives turned. "You!" Tobias snarled, then they were both diving for cover behind a substantial looking mass of shielded cables.

Jack and Amy were forced to do the same as Tobias opened up, blasting away at Jack with little care or restraint. Jack cried out in pain. Finding herself relatively unmolested, Amy gave covering fire, as did Teal'c and Sam from the hatch. Tobias ducked down behind the cables, allowing Sam to break from the hatch to the engine block that was sheltering Jack, and Meyn'auc took her place.

"Give it up, Tobias!" Sam called. "You can't get away!"

There was no response.

Jack pushed himself up. "Tobias!" He called. When there was still no reply, he gave a signal, and Amy rose to give cover as Sam swung wide around the cable mass.

"They're gone," she reported.

"Damn Tollan phase shifting," Jack grumbled. "Always somewhere to go."

The ship hummed as the power came back on.

"O'Neill," Teal'c's voice came over the radio. "Power is restored, and Seln'auc is running a full system diagnostic."

"Great," Jack replied. "Can you tell us where the bad guys are?"

"We can not," Teal'c said, apologetically. "Until the diagnostic is complete all monitoring systems are off-line."

"Okay," Jack accepted, looking down at his leg, where Tobias' shot had burned a deep hole in his flesh. "Then can you tell us where the infirmary is?"

*

"Just hold still," Amy instructed Jack.

"I want to know what that is you're trying to smear on my leg," Jack protested.

"It's a compound of chamka resin, ground brishna root and yarrow," Amy replied. "It's a Jaffa medicine that acts like a breathable band-aid. Now stop being such a baby; that's a deep tissue burn and it's not just going to get better."

"Colonel!"

Sam picked up her radio. "What is it, Jonas?" She asked, adding by way of explanation: "The Colonel is a little busy right now."

"We may have a problem," Jonas admitted. "I'm in the primary ring transport room of the al'kesh."

"Didn't I tell him to stay on the teltac?" Jack called out.

"I know the Colonel told me to stay on the al'kesh," Jonas went on. "But I didn't end up having too much choice in the matter."

"Done," Amy said. "You can walk on that straight away," she told Jack. "But please, put your pants back on first."

"Tell him we're on out way up to the bridge," Jack told Sam.

On the bridge – or rather, on the command deck behind the main cockpit, as the al'kesh did not have a true bridge – the team gathered. Jonas was looking a little the worse for wear, sporting a vicious bruise over his right eye.

"What happened to you?" Jack asked.

"This blonde ringed onto the teltac and slugged me," Jonas replied. "I'm assuming that was Claire Tobias."

"You really have a way with women, don't you," Amy teased.

Jonas shuddered, having still not fully recovered from his fear of her after the – not to mince words – psychotic display she had treated him to in the weeks following Daniel Jackson's Ascension. "Things were a little hazy after that," he admitted. "But I'm pretty sure she would have just shot me in the head if the guy hadn't intervened."

"Why would he do that?" Meyn'auc wondered aloud.

"He said there was no need to kill me," Jonas replied, a little defensively.

"I apologise," the Jaffa said. "I did not mean to imply that there was no reason to spare you; only that he showed no such consideration to Lohesh, and made no attempt to prevent Rayker killing Sar'yan."

"I do not believe he intended to show me any mercy either," Seln'auc added.

"Jonas isn't tainted," Amy said.

"Tainted by what?" Sam asked.

"The Goa'uld. Think about it," Amy explained. "We thought that Karloth wanted revenge on Anubis, but what if he blamed the entire Goa'uld species? His Tollan moral code prohibits the taking of another life except in self-defence, right?"

"Right," Sam agreed.

"But he might well feel that the Goa'uld have no right to life; that they forfeit it for their crimes. And a Jaffa carries a larval Goa'uld; in his eyes they might be as bad as the Goa'uld."

"Sounds pretty rough on the Jaffa."

Amy nodded. "Right," she said. "But the moment he decides that he can choose who has a right to live based on what they are, not what they do, his morality is all fubared anyway."

"What about Lohesh?" Meyn'auc asked. "He was not Jaffa."

"No," Amy admitted. "But if I'm right about his people, he was still tainted. I think that Guyen-tor is a corruption of Gayn'tar, which is Goa'uld slang meaning 'fighting human'," she told Jack.

"Used of gladiatorial champions," Meyn'auc added. "You believe that the Guyen-tor were originally adapted by the Goa'uld for arena combat."

"Hence they are tainted."

"This is all fascinating," Jack said. "But meanwhile where are our fugitives?"

"The teltac has now left this system, O'Neill," Teal'c reported.

"Well, why haven't we gone after it?" Jack demanded.

"We can't," Seln'auc replied. "They rigged the engines. If we try to hyperlaunch now they'll explode and kill us all."

Amy's face went almost ghostly white. "They're gone?" She asked. "With the Pax Perpeti?"

Seln'auc smiled. "Actually, that's the good news," she said. "My diagnostic is detecting an unknown power source from the ordnance bay. I think they were forced to leave the device behind when they fled."

"Well, that's something," Amy allowed.

"Okay," Jack said. "What's our status, overall?"

"Not good," Seln'auc replied. "Hyperdrives are useless and the inertial thrusters are offline. I have enough control over the emergency rockets to stabilise our orbit; nothing more. After Tobias and Karloth left, a virus scrambled the guidance systems in the transport rings, so we can not send any cargo until I have scrubbed and reinitialised the systems. A similar technique was used to disable many of the other subsystems, although they have left us life support, and we can cloak if we need to avoid detection."

"Anubis' warships have displayed the ability to detect cloaked vessels before now," Sam reminded them.

"Only if they are looking," Meyn'auc replied. "Or so it was the last time I was in a situation like this."

"How long to fix the engines?" Jack asked.

"No more than an hour," Seln'auc replied, confidently.

Jack nodded. "You get working on that then," he said. "Teal'c and Meyn'auc, help out if you can. Carter, Kawalsky and Jonas; let's go find the Pacman."

*

"Come to mama," Amy whispered, breathing a little easier as she lifted the heavy device from the weapons locker. "Lady and gentlemen, I give you the Arbitas Imper Pax Perpeti: The Imperial Judge who never allows fighting."

"Huh?" Jack asked.

"Sorry," Amy replied. "The language of the Ancients is pretty fiddly. Thoth probably knew it better than any other living creature, but I only have fragments of that memory. A better translation would probably be 'the enforcer of everlasting peace in the empire'."

"So it's...good? Right?"

"Not really," Amy said. "Did you ever see Dr Strangelove?"

"Some of it," Jack admitted. "It was in black and white; I don't watch many black and white movies. Wasn't some English guy playing the President?"

Sam frowned. "If by 'some English guy' you mean the late, great Peter Sellers, then yes, Sir," she told him, snippily.

Jack looked puzzled. "Carter?"

"Sorry, Sir," Sam said, awkwardly. "Reflex action. My Dad was a big fan: The Goons, Inspector Clouseau, old Ealing movies; the whole bit."

"Anyway," Amy interrupted, impatiently. "The point is Dr Strangelove."

"And?" Jack prompted.

"This is a doomsday device, Sir," Amy explained, half her attention now focused on the device. "It enforced peace with the threat of annihilation. If I'm reading the inscriptions on the pedestal aright, then the Pax Perpeti was originally connected to a massive computer system that was programmed to respond when its inputs informed it of certain specific events. Essentially, if any of the cultures and planets under the jurisdiction of the Empire of the Ancients developed, tested and used certain prohibited weapons of mass destruction they would receive one warning, and then their world would be wiped out."

"Wiped out how?" Jack demanded.

"Well, Sir...If I'm right, and I think I am, this is a singularity generator."

"A black hole gun?"

"Sort of. I think it's charging now, but when it's done it will generate a gravitational field equivalent to that of a black hole at a target point designated by a set of coordinates."

"Yowza."

"We have to find a way to destroy it, Sir," Amy insisted.

"Wait a minute," Sam interrupted. "You're talking about just throwing away one of the most powerful weapons we've ever encountered."

"I...Yes, Ma'am," Amy replied, her tone implying that she was simply stating the obvious. "You're a physicist; you know better than I do the kind of effect randomly generating intense gravitational effects could have on the galaxy."

"But this device wasn't built by idiots, Captain," Sam insisted. "The Ancients must have built in a way to compensate for those effects."

Amy looked about to retort, but clearly thought better of it. "I'm sorry, Ma'am. You're right, of course," she agreed. "But all of those safeguards – unless I miss my guess completely – were in the control computer. Unfortunately, in order to be able to use the device as a weapon of offence, Anubis had to bypass all of the original control systems. That's what this is," she added, indicating the Goa'uld attachment at the top of the device. "They ripped out the original circuits and jury-rigged some kind of...point and click interface for designating target coordinates.

"And there's more than that," she added, passing the device to Sam.

"This is a star chart," Sam realised. "My God; I think this chart is even more accurate and comprehensive than the one the Asgard showed me on board the Stupid Idea."

"It's the targeting grid," Amy explained.

"Then these red dots are..."

"Singularities being charged," Amy agreed. "Now, if I'm reading it right, the smaller one is a little too close for comfort."

"It's in this system," Jonas said, looking over Sam's shoulder. "In the heart of the sun."

"Isn't that your shtick?" Jack asked Sam.

"If we survive this, I'll be sure to sue Anubis," Sam replied.

"How long?" Jack asked.

"Well, I'm not sure about Ancient units of time," Amy admitted. "But at the rate it seems to be counting down..." She looked to Jonas.

"Twenty six minutes," he said. "Give or take."

"Teal'c!" Jack called into his radio.

"O'Neill?"

"Is there any chance that when she said 'an hour tops', Seln'auc really meant 'less than twenty-five minutes'?"

There was a pause. "None, O'Neill. Is there some new danger."

"We'll get back to you on that."

"What about the larger singularities," Amy asked. "Argus said something about 'dealing with' the Asgard?"

"That would be this one," Sam replied, pointing to the screen.

A looked of horror came over Jonas' face. "That's the galactic core of Ida," he said.

"And a very big black hole," Sam agreed. "There's a black hole swarm at the heart of the galaxy already. I'd have to do some more accurate calculations to be sure, but I think that the black hole we're looking at here would fuse all of the others into a monster singularity."

"How bad?" Jack asked. "In simple terms."

"The gravitational effects would probably cause a very slight shift in the Earth's orbit," Sam said. "Within Ida itself...We're talking about the implosion of an entire galaxy. The collapse would take millions of years, even within the distorted timeframe of the direct gravitational effects, but the worlds within would feel the effects at once and become essentially unliveable in a matter of years. More importantly, even the Asgard don't have the technology to escape their creeping doom, because the intense gravitational field will warp hyperspace itself, effectively shutting down all interstellar travel. Any window or Stargate wormhole you tried to open would just loop back to the singularity. They'd be cut off from us, completely; to all intents and purposes wiped out in seconds."

"When?" Jack asked.

"About nine hours," Jonas replied. "It's probably already been charging for several days to build a singularity that size."

"And then there's door number three," Jonas added.

"Which is where?" Jack asked.

"Galactic central point," Amy replied. "In the Milky Way. Same deal as with Ida."

"But Anubis is in the Milky Way," Jack said. "Even he can't be that nuts."

"I don't think he programmed it," Amy told him. "Remember how I said that Karloth hates all the Goa'uld and those tainted by him?"

Jack's face fell.

"In a big enough picture, I think he sees everyone as tainted."

"That one has almost a week until it blows," Jonas added. "For what that's worth."

"So shut them down," Jack suggested.

"Well, I can try to decipher the controls and..."

"We can't," Amy said. "This kind of device would be a pretty useless deterrent if the process could be cancelled. It's entirely automated, so that the doom falls on the heads of those who use the forbidden technologies, but likewise they wanted to make sure that no-one would even try to get away with a pre-emptive strike and a lame apology. Once initiated, a singularity can not be shut down; there's a very clear warning on the cradle."

"Then we destroy it," Jack said. "A little C4..."

"That definitely won't work," Sam interjected.

"And why not?" Jack asked.

"The energy signature Seln'auc detected; it wasn't big enough to create a singularity; not by a long way. This is just the control module; the generator itself must be somewhere else."

"Somewhere secret," Jonas added. "So that it couldn't be taken out in a pre-emptive strike."

Jack sighed, angrily. "So what do we do?"

"We'll...work on it," Sam said.

"Work fast."

"Yes, Sir."

*

Twenty-three minutes later

"Let's recap," Sam suggested. "The only way to stop the singularities is to destroy the generator."

"Right," Amy agreed.

"But we don't know where it is, and we couldn't get to it if we did."

"Does the control module know?" Jonas asked.

"If it does," Amy sighed. "We don't know how to ask it."

"So," Jack said, with forced good cheer. "Which blip is going to kill us?"

"This one," Amy replied, pointing out one of the red dots. "Right here at good old five-three-one-two-six-eight-point-oh-oh-nine-one-seven by minus-seven-oh-one-three-fi..."

"That's it!" Sam shouted.

"What?" Jack asked. "Did you get bingo?"

"No, Sir," Sam replied. "I can't believe I didn't see it before! The locational coordinates for the singularity!"

"What about them?"

"They're not zero," Jonas realised.

"And nor is galactic central point," Amy added.

"Huzzah!" Jack cried.

Sam looked at Jack in surprise. "So you see what this means?"

"Not even slightly."

"Well if zero isn't galactic centre, and it isn't the location of the control module, then it has to be one of two things."

"Naturally," Jack agreed. "And those things are...?"

"Either the original location of the control module, or the location of the generator," Sam explained, patiently.

"We know how to ask it where the generator is," Amy added.

"Oh. So we know where the thing that's killing us is," Jack realised. "That's always nice. We still can't get there."

"We don't have to," Amy said. "We just need to destroy it...somehow. Or get someone else to."

"If we can get word to the Tok'ra, they can still save Ida and the Milky Way," Sam suggested.

Jack sighed. "Given how much brains there are in this room, it's hard to accept how dumb you guys can be," he said.

"Sir?" Sam asked, hurt.

"All we need to do is destroy a generator on the far side of the galaxy," he said. "You know, it's a real shame we don't have...I don't know, say, the controls to a singularity generator!"

"We are dumb," Amy agreed.

"No, Sir," Sam said. "We could destroy a lot more than just the generator, and besides, I wouldn't begin to know how to programme it."

Amy snapped her fingers. "To the pel'tac!" She cried, dramatically. "Sorry," she said, in response to Jack's look. "That was a little bit Scooby Doo, wasn't it?"

Jack shrugged. "We wouldn't change you for the world," he assured her. "Just don't do it again."

"I shall never betray My Lord Anubis!" Argus declared.

"He seems to have been growing a spine while he has been sitting there," Meyn'auc told Amy. "He has been denouncing us as Shol'va while we try to work."

"That's real inconsiderate," Amy said. "Let's try this: Argus, if you do what we want you to, then we'll let you go. If you don't, then in exactly two minutes, you and the rest of us get to find out exactly what spaghettification feels like."

"I hate that word," Jack confessed.

"I am proud to die for Lord Anubis."

"Like he cares," Amy snorted. "Anyway, you switched sides once already; how far do you think he trusts you? Did you think you had all those guards around you because he wanted you kept safe? Come on, Argus, it's classic supervillain stuff; even a Goa'uld must know this one. 'Now I have no further need of you'; bang, bang, end of scene and the dead scientist gets dragged off and forgotten about. There is no reward for you, Argus; in this world or the next. Only the sure and certain fact that Anubis will not tolerate another person knowing the secrets of his superweapon."

"I do not understand you," Argus protested.

"Yes you do!" Amy snapped, thrusting the Pax Perpeti into his hands. "If you don't believe that, here's another classic for you: 'This is the price of failure, Mr Bond'. You screwed up, Argus. All your friends down there are dead, so you're the one who gets to take the fall when Anubis is looking to place the blame. You have one chance to live, Argus, and that's us."

"What...?"

"Coordinates oh by oh by oh, lowest magnitude," Amy anticipated. The Goa'uld's fingers practically flew across the control device. As soon as he was done, Amy took it back. A new singularity was flashing, on the far side of galactic centre, but only for a moment before the screen went blank.

"Did it work?" Jack asked.

Sam checked her watch. "Well," she hazarded. "We're not dead."

Jack breathed a sigh of relief. "Then let's get this ship fixed and go home," he said.

*

Zolash
Three days later

"You know, this isn't actually home," Jack told Amy. "Although it's pretty nice."

"You didn't have to come, Sir," Amy reminded him. "In fact, you could have ordered me not to come." The two of them were sitting beside the al'kesh in the bright Zolan sunlight, enjoying the cool breeze.

"After the pitch you gave this guy Li, I just have to meet him," Jack demurred.

"Thank you," Amy said, sincerely, once she was done blushing. Jack would have been entirely within his rights to deny her request to accompany Seln'auc and Meyn'auc to the rendezvous, as well as refusing her permission to hand over the now-defunct Ancient device, but instead he had chosen to allow her to honour her word: Once Sam had assured him the Pax Perpeti was no longer a danger, of course. Argus had – again, as per Amy's promise – been set loose as soon as the ring transports were fixed. Amy figured he was probably running for his life right about now.

Jack had insisted on escorting her however, sending the rest of SG-1 back through the Stargate on Yeth just before Anubis' mothership arrived in orbit. Fortunately Seln'auc's cloaking device seemed to have served its purpose, and they slipped away unnoticed.

"Now, you promise not to do anything rash?" Amy asked again.

"I promise."

"I mean, you know we can't afford to make an enemy of Yu right now."

"Captain..."

"Sorry, Sir," Amy said.

"Yes, I recognise the need. After all, it was his attack that let me escape from Baal, and he did rescue you from Dazsbog, and inadvertently gave us a foothold on Shayara. The stuff they're bringing back from there is pretty sweet by the way."

"I'm glad my captivity wasn't for nothing."

"For nothing?" Jack asked. "You saved two galaxies," he reminded her. "That's pretty god going even in my books."

"You guys would have sorted it out," she assured him. "I'm just happy I got to come along for the ride."

"A barque is approaching," Seln'auc announced, coming down the ramp behind them. She and Meyn'auc were bearing Sar'yan's body between them. "We shall await it by the Chappa'ai."

"We'll be along in a moment," Jack said. He waited for the two Jaffa to move out of range before asking Amy: "Now, they don't know who 'Xu' really is, right?"

"Right," Amy replied.

"Just so I know."

"How's the leg?"

"Not so bad," Jack replied, scrambling up and leaning on a makeshift crutch to keep the weight off his wound. "Although not great. I just wish I knew why Tobias seemed to have it in for me so much. I guess she's just sore that I lied to her and her team."

"I know how she feels," Amy admitted, with a touch of bitterness. "God; I knew she'd be trouble but..." She shook her head. "Anyway, I don't think it's just that. I think it's about Major Carter."

"Carter?"

Amy nodded. "It probably goes way back, but I think Tobias has a lot of entitlement and inferiority issues that got snarled up when she didn't get the Major's place on the SGC. In her mind, Major Carter took what was rightfully hers."

"And this translates into hating me, how?"

Amy shuffled her feet.

"Off the record," Jack promised.

Amy shrugged. "Tobias hates you because you chose Major Carter's team instead of hers, and because you'd rather be the Major's friend than her lover."

"Her...Oh."

"Don't feel too flattered," Amy advised. "She was pretty much all over Karloth when they were planning."

"Oh, I won't," Jack assured her. "Let's go meet your friend."

As it turned out, whether Seln'auc and Meyn'auc knew Li's true identity was a moot point.

"You appear to be missing your tattoo," Meyn'auc noted, suspiciously.

"The time for that deception is past," Li replied, in the sonorous voice of a symbiote. "I am Li Tie-guai of the Ba Xian."

"Bas'harak!" Seln'auc exclaimed. She began to level her staff weapon, but thought better of it. Li, clad in lacquered and ornamented armour, was flanked by four Jaffa.

"Literal translation," Amy muttered, in response to Jack's enquiring look. "Um...Golly," she offered, lamely.

"Yeah; I got that."

"Fear not, Seln'auc," Li went on. "Although I am not what I seemed, our bargain remains. This ship carries a new prim'ta for you, a priest to perform the ceremony, and all of the parts and ordnance which you requested."

Seln'auc shifted uneasily.

"You are free to examine all of the parts to your own satisfaction," Li assured her. "And your companions may stand witness of the prim'ta ceremony if you wish it."

"You are too kind," Seln'auc replied, acidly, clearly stung to have been so deceived. "I shall bring my tools," she added, and headed back towards the shelter of her own vessel to gather her wits.

"Meyn'auc," Li said. "You will be provided with a prim'ta at the appropriate time, and we shall render you all assistance in finding a host for the one you carry."

"Thank you, My Lord," Meyn'auc replied. "But that will not be necessary. I have found a suitable host already, and I shall have no need of another symbiote."

"You intend to offer yourself as a vessel?" Li asked.

"What?"

"I do," Meyn'auc agreed, ignoring Jack. "I understand that this is unusual, but I am confident that the child of My Goddess will not spurn my service."

"Meyn'auc...!"

"I also ask that you grant Sar'yan the funeral of a warrior in the service of your master," Meyn'auc went on. "And that I be allowed to transport the reward of Lohesh of the Guyen-tor to his civilian wives. I shall be visiting his world regardless, to deliver his body for his warrior wives to consume."

"Your new terms are quite acceptable," Li agreed.

"Acceptable!" Jack hollered.

"Colonel..." Amy cautioned, laying a hand on his arm.

Jack shook her off. "Is everyone here nuts?"

"Colonel O'Neill," Li interrupted. "I would speak with Captain Kawalsky alone. Perhaps you and Meyn'auc might also find conversation easier away from others?"

"Colonel O'Neill?" Meyn'auc offered, motioning for him to stand aside with her.

"Yeah, sure," Jack replied, reluctantly, but Amy gave him a reassuring nod. He allowed Meyn'auc to draw him away, then turned to face her. "Are you insane?" He demanded.

"I am not," she replied. "But I do not believe that I have a right to ask any other to do this. As you said, in battle I am asking no more than my soldiers have accepted as the risks of their profession, but this is a matter of a different kind. No other seems likely to accept this risk, and so it falls to me."

"But no-one has to do this!"

"I was entrusted with this life," Meyn'auc said, patiently. "My Goddess gave this duty to me, out of all her subjects, because she trusted me to care for the prim'ta."

"That's crap!" Jack insisted. "It's just one more snakelet to her; nothing special."

"On the contrary," Meyn'auc replied. "She is very special."

"She..." Jack's face paled slightly. "It's a Queen?"

"Queen and daughter of a Queen," Meyn'auc confirmed. The only child that My Lady Astarte brought with her from the other world, entrusted to me when she was old enough to be implanted within a Jaffa. My existing prim'ta was given to another that I might perform this task."

"That...That thing is going to grow up to spawn a whole new generation of parasites," Jack accused. "Another wave of Goa'uld, just like the rest of them."

"Did you not come to know her better than that?" Meyn'auc asked. "She is not, and never was, just like other Goa'uld. Besides," she added, playfully. "Maybe this one shall have a little something of her father in her."

"Her..." Jack's face paled the rest of the way to ashen.

"She would not have chosen to make just any child of hers a Queen," Meyn'auc assured him. She smiled. "You could almost say that I was carrying..."

"Don't!" Jack begged her. "Please, don't say that; and not just because Teal'c would kill me, if Rya'c didn't."

"You might also have a little faith in me," she added. "Astarte taught me that a strong host can help to shape the Goa'uld within, and I shall do my best to see that your daughter..."

"Gah!"

"...is a child that you could be proud of."

Jack sighed, heavily. "Meyn'auc," he said. "I don't care whose child that thing is, it'd damn well better realise how lucky it is to have you willing to become its host."

*

"Here's your weapon," Amy said, handing the Pax Perpeti over to Li. "I'm afraid either it's broken for good, or the galaxy will begin to die in a couple of days."

Li seemed unconcerned. "It was an accepted risk of adding you to the team," he said. "But the benefits were deemed worthwhile. You have performed admirably."

"I sucked," Amy replied. "Have you seen how much of my team I brought back?"

"Without your participation we expected the entire team to be destroyed, and the device to remain in Anubis' hands," Li assured her.

Amy shrugged. "Yeah, well; I guess we could have come out of it a lot worse."

"And you are still alive," Li pointed out. "To me that is all that matters."

Amy blushed, but could not help feeling annoyed that Li would dismiss her fallen comrades so lightly. "Sar'yan and Lohesh were good soldiers," she said. "They were good people."

"Soldiers die," Li replied. "So do people; and gods."

Amy closed her eyes, silently thanking him for making this easier.

"Amy...?"

"No."

"You do not know what I was going to ask," Li protested.

"You were going to ask me to come back with you," she said. "To join Lord Yu's court; weren't you?"

"I was," he admitted.

"The answer is no, but thank you for the offer. I have a duty to the Earth and to the SGC," she told him, wondering how and when exactly the USA and the Air Force had dropped out of the equation. "Just as you have a duty to Your Lord. I can no more join you than you could leave him and become a member of the SGC."

"I understand," he assured her. "Although I am saddened that we must part so soon."

"As am I," she admitted. "But I am glad also."

"Glad?"

"I've been trying to work out what's wrong with me," she said. "Why I can feel the way I do about a Goa'uld, and I realised that I was going about it all wrong; asking the wrong questions. What I should have been asking was why I can meet someone like you, and not love you."

"You do not love me?" Li asked, unable to hide his disappointment.

"No," Amy replied. "I want you," she admitted. "I mean, God how I want you. I trust you as well, although I tried to tell myself that I couldn't."

"You can!"

"I know. I always knew, I was just making excuses. I tried to tell myself that you would lie to me; that you would deceive me as you did when we first met, and that you did not love me, but that was all just attempts to justify my revulsion." She sighed. "But what it comes down to is that I can't love you. You stole another's life in order to survive, even if that life was almost over. I can't accept that, and that's why I could never love you.

"And what it is that's been bothering me isn't the fact that I desperately want someone who happens to be a Goa'uld, but that I can not bring myself to love you." Amy lowered her eyes, ashamed. "However much I want to."

Li reached out, turned her face towards him, and they kissed. It was every bit as electrifying as Amy had remembered, but it had a different taste. It tasted like goodbye.

"I love you," Li whispered.

"I know," Amy replied. "I'm sorry."

They stepped apart, and it was over. Amy's temptation had passed, and she felt like she was the monster.

"Thank you for bringing what was left of the device," Li said, making a manful effort to sound purely professional. "My Lord Yu-huang will be most pleased. If it is permitted, he wished to offer you a gift in token of his thanks."

"I...Such a gesture would be most welcome," she replied.

Li clapped his hands and a Jaffa servant brought a trunk. Behind him walked Ming-hu, bearing a small box.

"Greetings, Ming-hu," Amy said, with a small bow.

"Greetings, Captain," the girl replied. "How go your struggles?"

"Well, thank you," Amy replied.

"This trunk contains your clothes," Li said.

"Oh, I couldn't," Amy demurred. "It's too much."

"They were made for you and would suit no-one else," Ming-hu assured her. "Both the shape and the colour was matched exactly."

"I...well, thank you," Amy said, although she felt that the clothes were certain to go to waste in the bowels of the SGC.

"This is not the gift," Li told her. "The garments were given to you in a spirit of hospitality, that you would not feel underdressed in the halls of the Jade Pagoda."

No fear of that, Amy thought.

"The gift is this." Li signalled, and Ming-hu stepped forwards, opening the box. Within lay a clasp-brooch, fashioned of gold and silver and bearing a four-inch, engraved lozenge. The engraving was the image of a dragon, and the lozenge was carved from fire jade: A rare and precious form of jade, deep green shot through with red veins, found only on Yu-qing.

"I can't," Amy breathed.

"You are of course free to scan the brooch for hidden devices," Li assured her.

"No!" Amy gasped. "I wouldn't...He couldn't, could he? Not this."

"He could not," Li agreed. "I am pleased that you understand us, Amy. I hope then that you realise that to refuse this gift would be an insult most grave."

"Then...then I accept," she stammered. "Although I hold myself most unworthy of such a treasure."

"She who receives this gift is a treasure worth a thousand such tokens," Li assured her, drawing a crimson blush. Amy accepted the clasp, and Ming-hu tactfully withdrew. At a signal from Li the other servant lifted the box of clothes and carried it off in the direction of the Stargate.

"Amy," Li began, awkwardly. "You understand that I will never strike you in anger..."

"But that if we end up on opposite sides of a battle, there will be no exception made," she agreed. "We shall fight as any enemies would; I understand."

"The gain of the Tau'ri is My Lord's loss," Li said, bowing low.

Amy returned the gesture. "For what it's worth, I hope we never meet that way," she said. "I've seen you fight."

"Shake a leg there, Kawalsky!" Jack called, from a discreet distance. "Time to go."

"I have to..." Amy choked back a tear.

"Of course," Li agreed. "Your god go with you."

Amy hugged him, briefly, then turned away.

"Will we meet again, do you think?" Li called after her.

"I don't know," she admitted.

Li smiled at her and said: "Third base."

Amy could not help smiling back.

"Oh; I almost forgot," Jack said. "Been carrying these around for a week or so now." He reached into his pocket and drew out Amy's tags, crucifix and pendant.

"Thanks," she said, feeling a pang of homesickness as their familiar weight settled around her neck.

"Whatcha got there?" He asked.

Amy gave a melancholy sigh. "Another addition to my collection of things belonging to dead people," she replied. "A gift from Lord Yu, which used to belong to his late daughter Qi Gu-niang." She gestured vaguely ahead of her. "Also some really fancy frocks."

"See, you're doing well," Jack told her. "All I usually get is bruises." He looked at her, shrewdly. "What's up?" He asked.

"I wish I knew."

"Well it's not the end of the world," Jack assured her. "You stopped that, for now."

"Guess I did."

Jack smiled. "Dial it up, Captain," he ordered. "We're going home."

The Enemy of My Enemy    SG-1 Fiction    Fiction Index    With a Bang