Fic: WiP: Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves :: SGA/SG-1 :: c
Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves
an Alternate Universe SGA/SG-1 Crossover
by Auburn
[a] [b] [c] [d]
Blood and Naquadah
"We're receiving an IDC from the Alpha Site," the replacement gate tech announcement. "And a radio transmission."
"Let's hear it," Jack told him.
"This is General Hammond. Request confirmation that the iris has been opened."
Weir joined Jack and they exchanged a glance full of apprehension. She nodded to Jack to give the order.
"Open the iris," he told the tech, "and give me a channel."
"Yes sir."
He waited for the nod and then said, "This is Jack O'Neill, General. You have a go ahead. The iris is open. Come on home."
"Thank you, General. The crew of the Prometheus will be returning with me. Hammond, out."
The first members of the crew were already walking out of the wormhole. They looked unharmed and unhurried, but the slump of their shoulders told another story.
"This isn't going to be good, I can tell," Jack remarked to Weir.
She shoved her hand through her hair, but a single head shake had the dark waves falling back into place, proving that maybe women did have something with the hairdressing. The only reason Jack didn't look like a electrified hedgehog at the end of a tiresome day was the near buzz cut. He forced his wayward thoughts back on track. A quick count of the men and women returning through the wormhole told him Hammond hadn't exaggerated. The entire ship's compliment were returning, trudging down the ramp to line up and wait in front of the SFs always on guard duty in front of the doors.
Weir had her gaze on the gate.
General Hammond, Colonel Reynolds, and Sgt. Harriman were the last ones through before the wormhole winked out.
Weir sighed and murmured, "One hundred twelve."
"What?"
"Prometheus went out with one fifteen crew and five supernumeraries, Sgt. Harriman, Major Fraiser, Dr. Novak, Dr. Jackson, and General Hammond."
Jack looked back at the crowd, his eyes narrowed, searching for the reflection of a pair of eyeglasses or a tiny dynamo of a woman and found neither. "You counted," he said.
Hammond met Jack's gaze through the reinforced glass separating the control room from the embarkation room. Jack kept his face expressionless.
"I counted," Weir answered. "Three crew and three supernumeraries are missing."
"God damn it, Daniel," Jack muttered.
Medical processed Hammond and Reynolds ahead of the rest of the crew. He joined Jack and Weir in the conference room off her office, the one opposite Jack's new one.
"Dr. Weir," Hammond greeted the head of Stargate Command. He nodded to Jack as he took a seat at the table. "Jack."
"Sir."
"General," Weir returned. "Can you tell us what happened?"
Hammond nodded to Reynolds, who recited, "While still within the Milky Way and on course to Pegasus, we received a distress signal. We located it and altered course to provide aid. On arrival at the coordinates, sensors identified a disabled Goa'uld cargo ship and an al'kesh, also damaged. The cargo ship's life support had malfunctioned, rendering its atmosphere toxic. The al'kesh failed to respond to hails, but remained viable. I led a team aboard via the rings."
"On my orders," Hammond clarified.
"We found Jaffa bodies aboard the al'kesh. Before we could ascertain what or who had killed them, the rings aboard the al'kesh activated. We lost communications to Prometheus. Upon arriving back at the al'kesh's rings, we discovered they had been sabotaged, leaving us trapped on the al'kesh. Shortly thereafter, the rings activated and several unconscious members of the crew appeared, including General Hammond. This activity continued until the entire crew were transported to the al'kesh. A head count revealed that Major Fraiser, Dr. Novak and Dr. Jackson were still aboard Prometheus."
"Was there any indication of why they were retained?" Weir asked.
Reynolds shook his head.
"The boarding party ringed onto Deck Four," Hammond said. "I was on the bridge. Intership communications, internal surveillance, and security measures were immediately jammed. We have no way of knowing how many boarders there were, however all crew reports agree they appeared to be Kull warriors."
"Aw crap," Jack muttered.
"By the time qualified members of the crew had recovered sufficiently to repair the damage to the al'kesh ring transports, Prometheus had engaged sublights and moved out of range. Shortly there after, it opened a hyperspace window and transited," Hammond finished.
Weir consulted the file open before her and asked, "What happened to Corporal Herring, Sgt. Wilmox, and Lieutenant Sulimaeo?"
Hammond closed his eyes briefly, visibly regretful.
"Herring, Wilmox, and Sulimaeo died in the course of recovering critical drive crystals from the cargo ship. Carbon dioxide poisoning. Thanks to their efforts members of the engineering crew were able to repair the al'kesh. Without them, we would still be marooned. They performed in the ideal of the US Air Force and Stargate Command and I intend to nominate them all for the highest commendation possible."
Jack looked down at his hands where they rested on the glossy table top. They were looking knobby lately. Some of the hairs on the backs had gone silver. Another sign of getting old, he knew, like his aching knees. Nothing that hit him half as hard as losing another member of his team and another friend, or hell, even a scientist he'd never met, Norfalk or, no, Novak.
"We can't assume the other personnel are...dead just yet, can we?" Weir asked softly. "Is there any reason to believe they were killed in the hijacking of the ship or can we entertain the possibility that they are prisoners or even still free and attempting either to resecure it or escape?"
"We just don't know enough, Dr. Weir," Hammond said.
"MIA," Jack added drearily.
He'd have more hope if someone had told him Daniel was dead. Daniel had died a couple of times now. But this wasn't just Daniel and luck ran out for everyone − even SG-1, especially SG-1, McKay's ghost whispered like Jack's conscience − plus Fraiser and Nor-Novak were part of the mix too. Jack had no faith left that he would see any of them again.
"We'll instruct all the offworld teams to inquire, subtlely, about Prometheus and our people," Weir stated. "Until we know more, there is little else for us to do. I will contact the President and the Joint Chiefs with the news of the loss of the ship."
"I should do that, Doctor," Hammond said.
"Sir − " Jack said.
"My command, Jack," he said, "my responsibility."
All Jack could do was nod.
With your shield or on it.
~*~
Two days out from Ushbos, they decided they had to do something about the three Tau'ri. Ushbos had no chappa'ai, so they couldn't send them back to Earth when they made port. It would have to be before or wait until their next port after the refit. Since there were no human inhabited planets within even a day's detour from their course, after seemed the best bet. Hebridan, as Vala had initially suggested, since they'd be going there and it wasn't under Goa'uld control. They weren't bastards enough to leave three Tau'ri where the snakes could catch them.
That left the question of what to do with them while they were on Ushbos. Keeping them locked in the brig through the refit wouldn't work. Jehan was already uncomfortable with keeping them imprisoned this long. Longer would be against his own ethics.
The mess hall seemed like the best place to meet with them and talk. Food tended to ease tempers.
Meredith went down to the brig and fetched them. Between knowing two of them and being back on his game, Jehan figured he was safe enough. Vala had insisted on knitting up Mer's ribs and the damage to his knee with a healing device. They needed to be on their toes when they dealt with Borzin and the other scum who operated out of Ushbos since the shipyard and port had been taken over by the slaves that once labored there for the Goa'uld.
Meredith objected to playing errand boy, of course.
"Why me? Why do I even need to talk to them? I've got more important things. Borzin's going to be all over the Asgard stuff and I need to know how it works before he and the morons get their fingers on it or half of it will walk out in their pockets."
"Because they know you," Vala told him. "You're Tau'ri."
"So's − " Mer clamped his mouth shut. "Fine."
Jackson was talking before they ever made it into the mess.
" − convince her you can't just steal out ship, Rodney."
Mer walked away from him at that point, so that the three Tau'ri came to a stop just inside the mess hall door. Vala had seated herself on one of the tables and was playing with a salt shaker. Jehan slouched against the viewport with his back to hyperspace. He'd found a cache of candy bars in the supply room off the galley, snagged two for Mer and was chewing on his as they came in.
Mer's nostrils flared as he came closer, catching the scent of chocolate. His blue eyes narrowed and his hands reached forward, trying to snag the candy away from Jehan. "Give me that!" Jehan twisted away from him, laughing despite his full mouth, holding his arm up just beyond Mer's reach.
Mer plastered himself against Jehan as he stretched his hand up. Jehan enjoyed that for a minute, despite the round eyes of Jackson, Fraiser and Novak, but gave in when Mer made a frustrated noise and bit his chin. Mer snagged the candy bar as Jehan batted him away with his other hand. "Take it, I don't want you turning cannibal."
Mer grinned at him and took a massive bite from the chocolate bar.
Jehan grinned back and removed one of the others from a pocket.
Mer's face fell as he compared his half-eaten bar with Jehan's whole one.
"I was going to give you this, but since you wanted that one so much..."
"Bastard," Mer muttered.
Jehan flipped him the second candy bar too before slumping back against the viewport.
Vala kicked her legs.
"Well, here we are," she addressed the other three.
"Yes, about that," Jackson said, stepping forward, "this ship was on a rescue mission when you − "
"Diverted?" Vala offered.
Jackson scowled.
" − stole it."
"Stole is such a harsh word," Vala teased. "Appropriated, maybe. Jehan, what do you think?"
He shook his head. Not getting into this game with her.
"Mer?"
"Hmm," Mer mumbled. "Shanhai-ed?" He waved his hand at Jackson and the others.
Vala sighed and shook her head. She had her hair in a ponytail that shifted off her half-bare shoulder with the movement. Blue light from the viewport shone off the black strands. Like Jehan and Mer, she was wearing a mixture of clothing they'd picked up from the ship's stores. Vala had already customized hers, both the black BDUs and her tee-shirt were skin tight. The shoulders and arms of her shirt had been trimmed away as well. "Annexed?"
Jackson glowered.
"No, really, I think the word is stole."
"If you want to be picky about it," Vala said with a pout.
Jackson gave Mer and Jehan a look of exasperation as he appealed, "God, why is she in charge? She is in charge, isn't she?" His gaze sharpened and settled on Jehan. "Not you?"
Jehan shook his head.
“ Hey,” Mer grumbled. “I could be in charge.”
Jackson rolled his eyes.
"Where's Ushbos and how long are you going to keep us?" the little doctor demanded before Jackson and Mer could get into it.
"We wanted to talk to you about that," Vala said. "That's why Mer brought you here."
"I thought he just wanted to tell us everything that was wrong with the design," Novak muttered.
"It's a travesty to even call it engineering," Mer snapped with his mouth still full of chocolate. "The redundant systems are wasting huge amounts of power without actually improving operational stability at all. Half of the back up circuits are run through the same conduits. Any major damage to the primaries would wipe out their alternates at the same time."
"Half − " Novak started to protest.
"Oh, shut up, it's obvious that once I was gone there was no one left with any intelligence in the SGC. Possibly the entire planet. Sam should have caught some of these problems. I supoose hair dye induced brain damage must have finally set in. Really, my sister could have done a better job. My sister's kid could have too and her father's an English Major," Mer interrupted her. "Of course, when I'm done and Borzin's crew have remodeled it to my spec, this will be the sweetest ship in the galaxy."
"That might impress me a little more if I thought you were going to use it for a good purpose," Jackson remarked.
"Oh, darling, we are going to use it for a good purpose," Vala told him. "The very best. Making ourselves rich."
"While the people this ship was meant to rescue suffer and possibly die." Jackson aimed an angry look at Mer and practically snarled, “Including Sam.”
Mer's mouth dropped open. Jehan decided that they didn't need to go after Jackson's precious Atlantis expedition. He'd heard enough about Mer's ex-wife. The wonderous, blonde Samantha Carter could take care of herself. The nav computer had given them the plot course before Prometheus had diverted to answer their distress signal. It would have taken the ship out of the Milky Way. Jehan really didn't want to take a ship across the long dark between galaxies.
"Actually, we have no evidence they aren't already dead..." Novak winced as Jackson and Fraiser both glared at her. "And no reason to think they are, of course. Obviously. No evidence isn't evidence of anything."
"They had a course set for another galaxy," Jehan said.
"Really?" Mer's expression went from sulky and sour to bright and intrigued in a picosecond. "Which one?"
"Dwarf," Jehan answered. "Nav systems identify it as the Pegasus." Everyone but Mer looked at him as though surprised he'd spoken. He looked back expressionlessly. Fraiser and Novak lost interest after a second, but Jackson cocked his head, studying Jehan with renewed interest. Jehan turned his face away, telling himself he wasn't hiding while knowing it was a lie. He shifted uneasily and kept a sidelong eye on Jackson. “Destination was Atlantis.”
“ The Lost City is a Gatebuilder myth,” Vala said.
“ No, it just isn't here in this galaxy,” Jackson replied.
Mer snapped his fingers and pointed at Jackson. "How'd you get the expedition there? None of the addresses from the Abydos cartouche or O'Neill's little brain download included extragalactic destinations."
"Doing my job, McKay," Jackson shot back at him.
Mer ignored him and even the remnants of the candy bar in his hand. Though that hand moved as he sketched something in the air, before a brilliant smile spread over his face. "Eight chevrons!"
Jackson folded his arms and mumbled, "I hate it when he does that."
"Well?" Mer demanded. "It was eight chevrons, wasn't it?"
"Yes."
Vala clapped her hands. "Children! The question is what we do with our lovely 'guests'." She looked brightly at everyone. "Any suggestions?"
"Give us the ship back?" Novak asked, not like she seriously thought they would, but still needed to say it.
Vala appeared to think about it before shaking her head. "No."
Jackson looked sour and Fraiser pursed her lips.
Vala slid off the tabletop.
"Well, if no one else does? You can spend the rest of this trip in the brig until we reach Ushbos, where we'll have to tie you up and keep you somewhere under guard until the repairs and improvements are finished and we can take you somewhere with a chappa'ai." She smiled at them. "Or..."
"Or?" Jackson echoed.
"You can give your paroles and agree to make no effort to sabotage or otherwise steal our ship or harm us. Do that and you can stay in your own quarters, go everywhere but environmental, engineering or the bridge, and in general be ever so much comfortable. Doesn't that sound much better?"
"If it makes it any easier to decide," Mer said, "I've changed all the passwords, command codes, and programmed a self-destruct in. Without one of use entering a kill command once a day, the drives will overload and blow everything to pieces. Which one of us has to give the command changes at random from day to day, as does the time frame."
"All of that for us?" Fraiser asked.
"Paranoid much, McKay?" Jackson added.
One mutiny had been enough. Jehan and Vala had both agreed Mer's precautions were more than justified this time. If they'd done the same with Tanafriti, Solek might never have chanced his hand and taken it.
"Hah," Mer said. "It's to keep any of Borzin's shadier connections getting any ideas."
"That's another thing," Vala added. "If we have to keep you under guard, someone will decide you must be valuable."
"And valuable things can be sold to the Goa'uld," Jehan finished.
Or given.
He'd been a gift from Apophis to Ba'al. Lagniappe as Apophis attempted to woo Ba'al to his side in the endless jockeying for position that had followed Ra's fall.
Restless, he stalked over to the coffee maker Mer had gleefully put into use and poured himself a mug of the black brew inside, only to stare down at it, reminded by just the smell that he'd lost any taste for it. Jehan sipped it anyway.
Jackson had been staring at him, frowning, until his face cleared abruptly. "You were on the space station," he blurted. "You were Ba'al's lo'taur."
"Was," Mer snapped at him sourly.
Novak and Fraiser were both staring. Jehan ignored them and watched Daniel silently.
"How could you serve him?" Daniel demanded.
Jehan set the coffee mug down. "No one mentioned it was a choice, unlike the one we've offered you. Parole or brig?"
~*~
Parole was all well and good, but they'd decided they'd each keep one of the Tau'ri with them through each day. Mer insisted on keeping the engineer with him to oversee the work on their ship, soon to renamed once work on refitting it finished, and Jehan had agreed to keep Fraiser with him. That left Daniel for Vala. Just the way she'd wanted it.
Teasing him was just so much fun, even if he was turning out to be quite the prude. Maybe because of that delightful prudishness. Jehan and Mer had had any hint of body consciousness hammered out of them. Neither of them wanted her, either. She certainly couldn't make either of them go red in the face with a few innuendos and the occasional grope.
Not that she would grope Jehan. That would be too hurtful. When Vala touched him, she did it with care and warning and he returned the consideration by relaxing instead of flinching away.
Daniel, on the other hand, spluttered, which she enjoyed the same way she did Mer's rants, but his body sent out all sorts of interested signals. His pupils dilated whenever she leaned close or brushed deliberately against him. Vala did so enjoy being wanted.
They'd made the unanimous decision to sleep in shifts on the ship too, where it rested in one of the cavernous hangars that once serviced motherships, for its security and theirs. For now, she and Daniel had exited the ship and were crossing the immense stretch to a smaller building sitting within it, where Borzin did his personal business.
He caught sight of them.
"Vala Mal Doran!" Borzin exclaimed. "You have a lot of gall, coming back here." He scrunched his face into a furious mask. "Meredith is already infuriating my workers. I suppose you mean to cheat me blind again."
"Borzin, you greasy extortionist slug," Vala replied. "You have the ethics and morals of a warthog three days dead from sweating sickness. If you try to pass of second rate parts on me again, I'll have to remove your chingas and feed them to an alley dog."
They both broke into huge smiles.
"Give us a hug," she laughed and Borzin opened his arms. Vala threw herself into them, wrapping her legs around his waist, squeezing until she felt him rocking under her weight. Finally she laughed and got down. A glance showed her Daniel looking befuddled, nervous and like he wished he was armed. Perfect. The poor dear needed have his assumptions, along with his ego, punctured for his own good. She was really doing him a favor.
"You better have something to pay for all the work Meredith has my people already doing," Borzin warned her.
He gave Daniel and appraising look. "New partner?"
Vala dismissed Daniel casually. "Temp crew."
"Where's the quiet one then?" Borzin asked.
"Jehan's doing a little shopping."
A rude laugh escaped Borzin at that. "He barely talks."
"No one cares when your money's good."
Borzin nodded at that.
"But I don't see Reckell or any of your other regular crew."
Vala shrugged easily. "They're on Tanafriti." She linked her arm with Borzin's and tugged him into walking with her. "Come along, Daniel."
Business meant matching Borzin shot for shot in his grimy, pinched office space, drinking what was either distilled naquadah or fermented cat piss, ignoring the competing smells of dirt, sweat, hot metal and incense, while exchanging insults and updates. Vala sat where she could keep an eye out. The Lucian Alliance had begun cementing control of Ushbos. Eventually, Vala really would have to stop using the port unless she wanted to pay their even more extortionate fees.
Borzin insisted on regaling Daniel with the tale of how Vala and her crew had stolen the second place finishing ship in the Loop of Kon Garat one year, fitted Tanafriti with improvements based on its tech -his people had done the work − and entered the space race the next.
Outside, heavy equipment competed with torches and welding outfits to overwhelm unprotected ears. Occasionally, a heavy generator would kick in, the vibrations running through the floor and walls. The door to the office stayed open and raised voices drifted in. Ushbos was busier than ever since kicking the Goa'uld out.
"We almost won too," Vala reminisced. "We would have if we hadn't lost time hijacking that shipment of crystals." Her toes curled as she remembered the thrill of that job. It had gone like clockwork. No one on Hebridan had a clue who had pulled it off and they'd made more off the crystal sold on the blackmarket than the Kon Garat prize would have brought them. Only a pilot like Jehan could have done it.
That had been a sweet job.
Still, the kind of prizes they'd be able to take with the new ship would leave that in the dust. Working with the Tanafriti, even the newest, most powerful ha'taks would be helpless against them. They'd lie up off the Passage of Nilor, ambush Goa'uld shipping, and get rich.
An al'kesh came down from orbit to a landing pad near her ship. Vala eyed it, but the crew leaving it were clearly not Jaffa.
Daniel listened quietly as Borzin told two more stories, including the one about raiding one of Ba'al's research installations. It hadn't been a real raid, of course. Ba'al had too many Jaffa. It had been more of a covert extraction of valuable materials...and one lo'taur. Borzin didn't know about that part of it, of course.
Vala steered Borzin back to business after that. They hammered out the terms of their deal using a steady back and forth of insults and threats. Back-up systems, hidden weapon caches, smugglers' compartments, extra weapons systems and sensor packages, all of them cost, but would be worth it when it saved their lives.
"How long?" she asked finally.
"Two months," Borzin said.
"Not good enough."
He held up his hands as though helpless.
Vala named another sum.
"One month," Borzin agreed with a pleased grin. "To be paid in naquadah."
"Would I offer you anything else?"
She joined his laughter.
"I want some remodeling done on the personnel quarters too," Vala decided.
They might as well be comfortable. The ship was home, after all. Jehan and Mer had taken over the admiral's cabin and she had the captain's quarters, but they were unjustly tiny and spartan.
"Of course, of course," Borzin agreed.
Borzin began weaving in his chair. One last shot of liquor and Vala got his thumb and voice prints on a recording crystal. Borzin's head thumped down onto his desk and she let go of his hand. A deal was a deal. Borzin needed to stop drinking with her.
"Passed out," she told Daniel.
"I'm not surprised. How much did you two drink?"
"Not that much, darling. Poor Bor just doesn't hold his liquor too well."
Her own legs were only slightly unsteady. One of the legacies of hosting Qetesh. Snakes didn't like the effect of alcohol, it weakened their hold on a host. Qetesh had permanently altered Vala's metabolism to process alcohol more efficiently and without side effect. That had served her well since. And there were always other intoxicants, though she really preferred sex anyway.
Unfortunately, while she didn't get very drunk, she still got the same hangover. Her head had already begun pounding. By morning, she would be miserable. Maybe Fraiser could be persuaded to provide a painkiller or two.
"Let's go," she said.
"I can't believe you outdrank him."
"Neither can Borzin. He tries a new liquor every time." Vala shrugged. If Borzin ever found something that did knock her out, she shuddered to think what he'd do to her. She knew it would end with her dead, because Borzin knew if it didn't she would come back and end him.
Lucky they understood each other so well. Vala didn't want to find a different shipyard to do the work on her ship. Borzin's people were good at their work.
"Say," Daniel asked as they headed into the city, "what is Jehan buying?"
"This and that. The whole ship's rather uncomfortable, you know, and all our things are still on my previous ship."
"Okay," he said slowly. "What are we going to do now?"
Vala eyed him, then clamped her hand possessively on his arm.
"Daniel, I can hardly go around wearing your awful Tau'ri uniforms now that I don't need to," she sold him. "We're going shopping too."
His groan made her laugh happily.
~*~
The month on Ushbos went quickly, but Janet was happy to leave it behind.
Next port would be Hebridan, where Vala had promised to release them. Daniel knew people there. They'd be able to get home or at least gate to the alpha site.
McKay had been McKay, whether he called himself Meredith or Rodney, but Vala and Jehan had been not unkind. Compared to the treatment she knew many teams had received at the hands of the Goa'uld and their Jaffa, they'd been generous humanitarians. She'd even had the chance to wander through the markets and stores in the port city, accompanying Jehan, with its sandstone walls and domed buildings like blue-painted hives, boots scuffing over a mosaic plaza hosting a fairground, the dust of an alien world settling into her pores. All something she wouldn't have been given the opportunity to enjoy as part of an SG mission, even given the change in regulations that had allowed her to accompany General Hammond's mission, but her pleasure in it was tainted.
Prometheus had been renamed Revenge. As a final touch, McKay and Jehan had painted a skull and crossbones on its hull after the refit and modifications had been finished. Revenge would not be continuing the mission to Pegasus. Janet's pleasant days on Ushbos, Novak's easy if rancorous partnership with McKay, and even Daniel's fascination with a culture that had successfully remade itself post-Goa'uld, came at the price of a failed rescue mission.
Daniel talked himself hoarse and it did no good. Vala Mal Doran was only interested in profit and even the promise of possible treasure in the Lost City didn't move her. McKay was blind with bitterness toward the SGC. Jehan remained an enigma, though he'd flinched when Daniel shouted that they couldn't just leave them behind.
Janet could think of no way to move any of them to change their minds.
~*~
[d]
an Alternate Universe SGA/SG-1 Crossover
by Auburn
[a] [b] [c] [d]
Blood and Naquadah
"We're receiving an IDC from the Alpha Site," the replacement gate tech announcement. "And a radio transmission."
"Let's hear it," Jack told him.
"This is General Hammond. Request confirmation that the iris has been opened."
Weir joined Jack and they exchanged a glance full of apprehension. She nodded to Jack to give the order.
"Open the iris," he told the tech, "and give me a channel."
"Yes sir."
He waited for the nod and then said, "This is Jack O'Neill, General. You have a go ahead. The iris is open. Come on home."
"Thank you, General. The crew of the Prometheus will be returning with me. Hammond, out."
The first members of the crew were already walking out of the wormhole. They looked unharmed and unhurried, but the slump of their shoulders told another story.
"This isn't going to be good, I can tell," Jack remarked to Weir.
She shoved her hand through her hair, but a single head shake had the dark waves falling back into place, proving that maybe women did have something with the hairdressing. The only reason Jack didn't look like a electrified hedgehog at the end of a tiresome day was the near buzz cut. He forced his wayward thoughts back on track. A quick count of the men and women returning through the wormhole told him Hammond hadn't exaggerated. The entire ship's compliment were returning, trudging down the ramp to line up and wait in front of the SFs always on guard duty in front of the doors.
Weir had her gaze on the gate.
General Hammond, Colonel Reynolds, and Sgt. Harriman were the last ones through before the wormhole winked out.
Weir sighed and murmured, "One hundred twelve."
"What?"
"Prometheus went out with one fifteen crew and five supernumeraries, Sgt. Harriman, Major Fraiser, Dr. Novak, Dr. Jackson, and General Hammond."
Jack looked back at the crowd, his eyes narrowed, searching for the reflection of a pair of eyeglasses or a tiny dynamo of a woman and found neither. "You counted," he said.
Hammond met Jack's gaze through the reinforced glass separating the control room from the embarkation room. Jack kept his face expressionless.
"I counted," Weir answered. "Three crew and three supernumeraries are missing."
"God damn it, Daniel," Jack muttered.
Medical processed Hammond and Reynolds ahead of the rest of the crew. He joined Jack and Weir in the conference room off her office, the one opposite Jack's new one.
"Dr. Weir," Hammond greeted the head of Stargate Command. He nodded to Jack as he took a seat at the table. "Jack."
"Sir."
"General," Weir returned. "Can you tell us what happened?"
Hammond nodded to Reynolds, who recited, "While still within the Milky Way and on course to Pegasus, we received a distress signal. We located it and altered course to provide aid. On arrival at the coordinates, sensors identified a disabled Goa'uld cargo ship and an al'kesh, also damaged. The cargo ship's life support had malfunctioned, rendering its atmosphere toxic. The al'kesh failed to respond to hails, but remained viable. I led a team aboard via the rings."
"On my orders," Hammond clarified.
"We found Jaffa bodies aboard the al'kesh. Before we could ascertain what or who had killed them, the rings aboard the al'kesh activated. We lost communications to Prometheus. Upon arriving back at the al'kesh's rings, we discovered they had been sabotaged, leaving us trapped on the al'kesh. Shortly thereafter, the rings activated and several unconscious members of the crew appeared, including General Hammond. This activity continued until the entire crew were transported to the al'kesh. A head count revealed that Major Fraiser, Dr. Novak and Dr. Jackson were still aboard Prometheus."
"Was there any indication of why they were retained?" Weir asked.
Reynolds shook his head.
"The boarding party ringed onto Deck Four," Hammond said. "I was on the bridge. Intership communications, internal surveillance, and security measures were immediately jammed. We have no way of knowing how many boarders there were, however all crew reports agree they appeared to be Kull warriors."
"Aw crap," Jack muttered.
"By the time qualified members of the crew had recovered sufficiently to repair the damage to the al'kesh ring transports, Prometheus had engaged sublights and moved out of range. Shortly there after, it opened a hyperspace window and transited," Hammond finished.
Weir consulted the file open before her and asked, "What happened to Corporal Herring, Sgt. Wilmox, and Lieutenant Sulimaeo?"
Hammond closed his eyes briefly, visibly regretful.
"Herring, Wilmox, and Sulimaeo died in the course of recovering critical drive crystals from the cargo ship. Carbon dioxide poisoning. Thanks to their efforts members of the engineering crew were able to repair the al'kesh. Without them, we would still be marooned. They performed in the ideal of the US Air Force and Stargate Command and I intend to nominate them all for the highest commendation possible."
Jack looked down at his hands where they rested on the glossy table top. They were looking knobby lately. Some of the hairs on the backs had gone silver. Another sign of getting old, he knew, like his aching knees. Nothing that hit him half as hard as losing another member of his team and another friend, or hell, even a scientist he'd never met, Norfalk or, no, Novak.
"We can't assume the other personnel are...dead just yet, can we?" Weir asked softly. "Is there any reason to believe they were killed in the hijacking of the ship or can we entertain the possibility that they are prisoners or even still free and attempting either to resecure it or escape?"
"We just don't know enough, Dr. Weir," Hammond said.
"MIA," Jack added drearily.
He'd have more hope if someone had told him Daniel was dead. Daniel had died a couple of times now. But this wasn't just Daniel and luck ran out for everyone − even SG-1, especially SG-1, McKay's ghost whispered like Jack's conscience − plus Fraiser and Nor-Novak were part of the mix too. Jack had no faith left that he would see any of them again.
"We'll instruct all the offworld teams to inquire, subtlely, about Prometheus and our people," Weir stated. "Until we know more, there is little else for us to do. I will contact the President and the Joint Chiefs with the news of the loss of the ship."
"I should do that, Doctor," Hammond said.
"Sir − " Jack said.
"My command, Jack," he said, "my responsibility."
All Jack could do was nod.
With your shield or on it.
~*~
Two days out from Ushbos, they decided they had to do something about the three Tau'ri. Ushbos had no chappa'ai, so they couldn't send them back to Earth when they made port. It would have to be before or wait until their next port after the refit. Since there were no human inhabited planets within even a day's detour from their course, after seemed the best bet. Hebridan, as Vala had initially suggested, since they'd be going there and it wasn't under Goa'uld control. They weren't bastards enough to leave three Tau'ri where the snakes could catch them.
That left the question of what to do with them while they were on Ushbos. Keeping them locked in the brig through the refit wouldn't work. Jehan was already uncomfortable with keeping them imprisoned this long. Longer would be against his own ethics.
The mess hall seemed like the best place to meet with them and talk. Food tended to ease tempers.
Meredith went down to the brig and fetched them. Between knowing two of them and being back on his game, Jehan figured he was safe enough. Vala had insisted on knitting up Mer's ribs and the damage to his knee with a healing device. They needed to be on their toes when they dealt with Borzin and the other scum who operated out of Ushbos since the shipyard and port had been taken over by the slaves that once labored there for the Goa'uld.
Meredith objected to playing errand boy, of course.
"Why me? Why do I even need to talk to them? I've got more important things. Borzin's going to be all over the Asgard stuff and I need to know how it works before he and the morons get their fingers on it or half of it will walk out in their pockets."
"Because they know you," Vala told him. "You're Tau'ri."
"So's − " Mer clamped his mouth shut. "Fine."
Jackson was talking before they ever made it into the mess.
" − convince her you can't just steal out ship, Rodney."
Mer walked away from him at that point, so that the three Tau'ri came to a stop just inside the mess hall door. Vala had seated herself on one of the tables and was playing with a salt shaker. Jehan slouched against the viewport with his back to hyperspace. He'd found a cache of candy bars in the supply room off the galley, snagged two for Mer and was chewing on his as they came in.
Mer's nostrils flared as he came closer, catching the scent of chocolate. His blue eyes narrowed and his hands reached forward, trying to snag the candy away from Jehan. "Give me that!" Jehan twisted away from him, laughing despite his full mouth, holding his arm up just beyond Mer's reach.
Mer plastered himself against Jehan as he stretched his hand up. Jehan enjoyed that for a minute, despite the round eyes of Jackson, Fraiser and Novak, but gave in when Mer made a frustrated noise and bit his chin. Mer snagged the candy bar as Jehan batted him away with his other hand. "Take it, I don't want you turning cannibal."
Mer grinned at him and took a massive bite from the chocolate bar.
Jehan grinned back and removed one of the others from a pocket.
Mer's face fell as he compared his half-eaten bar with Jehan's whole one.
"I was going to give you this, but since you wanted that one so much..."
"Bastard," Mer muttered.
Jehan flipped him the second candy bar too before slumping back against the viewport.
Vala kicked her legs.
"Well, here we are," she addressed the other three.
"Yes, about that," Jackson said, stepping forward, "this ship was on a rescue mission when you − "
"Diverted?" Vala offered.
Jackson scowled.
" − stole it."
"Stole is such a harsh word," Vala teased. "Appropriated, maybe. Jehan, what do you think?"
He shook his head. Not getting into this game with her.
"Mer?"
"Hmm," Mer mumbled. "Shanhai-ed?" He waved his hand at Jackson and the others.
Vala sighed and shook her head. She had her hair in a ponytail that shifted off her half-bare shoulder with the movement. Blue light from the viewport shone off the black strands. Like Jehan and Mer, she was wearing a mixture of clothing they'd picked up from the ship's stores. Vala had already customized hers, both the black BDUs and her tee-shirt were skin tight. The shoulders and arms of her shirt had been trimmed away as well. "Annexed?"
Jackson glowered.
"No, really, I think the word is stole."
"If you want to be picky about it," Vala said with a pout.
Jackson gave Mer and Jehan a look of exasperation as he appealed, "God, why is she in charge? She is in charge, isn't she?" His gaze sharpened and settled on Jehan. "Not you?"
Jehan shook his head.
“ Hey,” Mer grumbled. “I could be in charge.”
Jackson rolled his eyes.
"Where's Ushbos and how long are you going to keep us?" the little doctor demanded before Jackson and Mer could get into it.
"We wanted to talk to you about that," Vala said. "That's why Mer brought you here."
"I thought he just wanted to tell us everything that was wrong with the design," Novak muttered.
"It's a travesty to even call it engineering," Mer snapped with his mouth still full of chocolate. "The redundant systems are wasting huge amounts of power without actually improving operational stability at all. Half of the back up circuits are run through the same conduits. Any major damage to the primaries would wipe out their alternates at the same time."
"Half − " Novak started to protest.
"Oh, shut up, it's obvious that once I was gone there was no one left with any intelligence in the SGC. Possibly the entire planet. Sam should have caught some of these problems. I supoose hair dye induced brain damage must have finally set in. Really, my sister could have done a better job. My sister's kid could have too and her father's an English Major," Mer interrupted her. "Of course, when I'm done and Borzin's crew have remodeled it to my spec, this will be the sweetest ship in the galaxy."
"That might impress me a little more if I thought you were going to use it for a good purpose," Jackson remarked.
"Oh, darling, we are going to use it for a good purpose," Vala told him. "The very best. Making ourselves rich."
"While the people this ship was meant to rescue suffer and possibly die." Jackson aimed an angry look at Mer and practically snarled, “Including Sam.”
Mer's mouth dropped open. Jehan decided that they didn't need to go after Jackson's precious Atlantis expedition. He'd heard enough about Mer's ex-wife. The wonderous, blonde Samantha Carter could take care of herself. The nav computer had given them the plot course before Prometheus had diverted to answer their distress signal. It would have taken the ship out of the Milky Way. Jehan really didn't want to take a ship across the long dark between galaxies.
"Actually, we have no evidence they aren't already dead..." Novak winced as Jackson and Fraiser both glared at her. "And no reason to think they are, of course. Obviously. No evidence isn't evidence of anything."
"They had a course set for another galaxy," Jehan said.
"Really?" Mer's expression went from sulky and sour to bright and intrigued in a picosecond. "Which one?"
"Dwarf," Jehan answered. "Nav systems identify it as the Pegasus." Everyone but Mer looked at him as though surprised he'd spoken. He looked back expressionlessly. Fraiser and Novak lost interest after a second, but Jackson cocked his head, studying Jehan with renewed interest. Jehan turned his face away, telling himself he wasn't hiding while knowing it was a lie. He shifted uneasily and kept a sidelong eye on Jackson. “Destination was Atlantis.”
“ The Lost City is a Gatebuilder myth,” Vala said.
“ No, it just isn't here in this galaxy,” Jackson replied.
Mer snapped his fingers and pointed at Jackson. "How'd you get the expedition there? None of the addresses from the Abydos cartouche or O'Neill's little brain download included extragalactic destinations."
"Doing my job, McKay," Jackson shot back at him.
Mer ignored him and even the remnants of the candy bar in his hand. Though that hand moved as he sketched something in the air, before a brilliant smile spread over his face. "Eight chevrons!"
Jackson folded his arms and mumbled, "I hate it when he does that."
"Well?" Mer demanded. "It was eight chevrons, wasn't it?"
"Yes."
Vala clapped her hands. "Children! The question is what we do with our lovely 'guests'." She looked brightly at everyone. "Any suggestions?"
"Give us the ship back?" Novak asked, not like she seriously thought they would, but still needed to say it.
Vala appeared to think about it before shaking her head. "No."
Jackson looked sour and Fraiser pursed her lips.
Vala slid off the tabletop.
"Well, if no one else does? You can spend the rest of this trip in the brig until we reach Ushbos, where we'll have to tie you up and keep you somewhere under guard until the repairs and improvements are finished and we can take you somewhere with a chappa'ai." She smiled at them. "Or..."
"Or?" Jackson echoed.
"You can give your paroles and agree to make no effort to sabotage or otherwise steal our ship or harm us. Do that and you can stay in your own quarters, go everywhere but environmental, engineering or the bridge, and in general be ever so much comfortable. Doesn't that sound much better?"
"If it makes it any easier to decide," Mer said, "I've changed all the passwords, command codes, and programmed a self-destruct in. Without one of use entering a kill command once a day, the drives will overload and blow everything to pieces. Which one of us has to give the command changes at random from day to day, as does the time frame."
"All of that for us?" Fraiser asked.
"Paranoid much, McKay?" Jackson added.
One mutiny had been enough. Jehan and Vala had both agreed Mer's precautions were more than justified this time. If they'd done the same with Tanafriti, Solek might never have chanced his hand and taken it.
"Hah," Mer said. "It's to keep any of Borzin's shadier connections getting any ideas."
"That's another thing," Vala added. "If we have to keep you under guard, someone will decide you must be valuable."
"And valuable things can be sold to the Goa'uld," Jehan finished.
Or given.
He'd been a gift from Apophis to Ba'al. Lagniappe as Apophis attempted to woo Ba'al to his side in the endless jockeying for position that had followed Ra's fall.
Restless, he stalked over to the coffee maker Mer had gleefully put into use and poured himself a mug of the black brew inside, only to stare down at it, reminded by just the smell that he'd lost any taste for it. Jehan sipped it anyway.
Jackson had been staring at him, frowning, until his face cleared abruptly. "You were on the space station," he blurted. "You were Ba'al's lo'taur."
"Was," Mer snapped at him sourly.
Novak and Fraiser were both staring. Jehan ignored them and watched Daniel silently.
"How could you serve him?" Daniel demanded.
Jehan set the coffee mug down. "No one mentioned it was a choice, unlike the one we've offered you. Parole or brig?"
~*~
Parole was all well and good, but they'd decided they'd each keep one of the Tau'ri with them through each day. Mer insisted on keeping the engineer with him to oversee the work on their ship, soon to renamed once work on refitting it finished, and Jehan had agreed to keep Fraiser with him. That left Daniel for Vala. Just the way she'd wanted it.
Teasing him was just so much fun, even if he was turning out to be quite the prude. Maybe because of that delightful prudishness. Jehan and Mer had had any hint of body consciousness hammered out of them. Neither of them wanted her, either. She certainly couldn't make either of them go red in the face with a few innuendos and the occasional grope.
Not that she would grope Jehan. That would be too hurtful. When Vala touched him, she did it with care and warning and he returned the consideration by relaxing instead of flinching away.
Daniel, on the other hand, spluttered, which she enjoyed the same way she did Mer's rants, but his body sent out all sorts of interested signals. His pupils dilated whenever she leaned close or brushed deliberately against him. Vala did so enjoy being wanted.
They'd made the unanimous decision to sleep in shifts on the ship too, where it rested in one of the cavernous hangars that once serviced motherships, for its security and theirs. For now, she and Daniel had exited the ship and were crossing the immense stretch to a smaller building sitting within it, where Borzin did his personal business.
He caught sight of them.
"Vala Mal Doran!" Borzin exclaimed. "You have a lot of gall, coming back here." He scrunched his face into a furious mask. "Meredith is already infuriating my workers. I suppose you mean to cheat me blind again."
"Borzin, you greasy extortionist slug," Vala replied. "You have the ethics and morals of a warthog three days dead from sweating sickness. If you try to pass of second rate parts on me again, I'll have to remove your chingas and feed them to an alley dog."
They both broke into huge smiles.
"Give us a hug," she laughed and Borzin opened his arms. Vala threw herself into them, wrapping her legs around his waist, squeezing until she felt him rocking under her weight. Finally she laughed and got down. A glance showed her Daniel looking befuddled, nervous and like he wished he was armed. Perfect. The poor dear needed have his assumptions, along with his ego, punctured for his own good. She was really doing him a favor.
"You better have something to pay for all the work Meredith has my people already doing," Borzin warned her.
He gave Daniel and appraising look. "New partner?"
Vala dismissed Daniel casually. "Temp crew."
"Where's the quiet one then?" Borzin asked.
"Jehan's doing a little shopping."
A rude laugh escaped Borzin at that. "He barely talks."
"No one cares when your money's good."
Borzin nodded at that.
"But I don't see Reckell or any of your other regular crew."
Vala shrugged easily. "They're on Tanafriti." She linked her arm with Borzin's and tugged him into walking with her. "Come along, Daniel."
Business meant matching Borzin shot for shot in his grimy, pinched office space, drinking what was either distilled naquadah or fermented cat piss, ignoring the competing smells of dirt, sweat, hot metal and incense, while exchanging insults and updates. Vala sat where she could keep an eye out. The Lucian Alliance had begun cementing control of Ushbos. Eventually, Vala really would have to stop using the port unless she wanted to pay their even more extortionate fees.
Borzin insisted on regaling Daniel with the tale of how Vala and her crew had stolen the second place finishing ship in the Loop of Kon Garat one year, fitted Tanafriti with improvements based on its tech -his people had done the work − and entered the space race the next.
Outside, heavy equipment competed with torches and welding outfits to overwhelm unprotected ears. Occasionally, a heavy generator would kick in, the vibrations running through the floor and walls. The door to the office stayed open and raised voices drifted in. Ushbos was busier than ever since kicking the Goa'uld out.
"We almost won too," Vala reminisced. "We would have if we hadn't lost time hijacking that shipment of crystals." Her toes curled as she remembered the thrill of that job. It had gone like clockwork. No one on Hebridan had a clue who had pulled it off and they'd made more off the crystal sold on the blackmarket than the Kon Garat prize would have brought them. Only a pilot like Jehan could have done it.
That had been a sweet job.
Still, the kind of prizes they'd be able to take with the new ship would leave that in the dust. Working with the Tanafriti, even the newest, most powerful ha'taks would be helpless against them. They'd lie up off the Passage of Nilor, ambush Goa'uld shipping, and get rich.
An al'kesh came down from orbit to a landing pad near her ship. Vala eyed it, but the crew leaving it were clearly not Jaffa.
Daniel listened quietly as Borzin told two more stories, including the one about raiding one of Ba'al's research installations. It hadn't been a real raid, of course. Ba'al had too many Jaffa. It had been more of a covert extraction of valuable materials...and one lo'taur. Borzin didn't know about that part of it, of course.
Vala steered Borzin back to business after that. They hammered out the terms of their deal using a steady back and forth of insults and threats. Back-up systems, hidden weapon caches, smugglers' compartments, extra weapons systems and sensor packages, all of them cost, but would be worth it when it saved their lives.
"How long?" she asked finally.
"Two months," Borzin said.
"Not good enough."
He held up his hands as though helpless.
Vala named another sum.
"One month," Borzin agreed with a pleased grin. "To be paid in naquadah."
"Would I offer you anything else?"
She joined his laughter.
"I want some remodeling done on the personnel quarters too," Vala decided.
They might as well be comfortable. The ship was home, after all. Jehan and Mer had taken over the admiral's cabin and she had the captain's quarters, but they were unjustly tiny and spartan.
"Of course, of course," Borzin agreed.
Borzin began weaving in his chair. One last shot of liquor and Vala got his thumb and voice prints on a recording crystal. Borzin's head thumped down onto his desk and she let go of his hand. A deal was a deal. Borzin needed to stop drinking with her.
"Passed out," she told Daniel.
"I'm not surprised. How much did you two drink?"
"Not that much, darling. Poor Bor just doesn't hold his liquor too well."
Her own legs were only slightly unsteady. One of the legacies of hosting Qetesh. Snakes didn't like the effect of alcohol, it weakened their hold on a host. Qetesh had permanently altered Vala's metabolism to process alcohol more efficiently and without side effect. That had served her well since. And there were always other intoxicants, though she really preferred sex anyway.
Unfortunately, while she didn't get very drunk, she still got the same hangover. Her head had already begun pounding. By morning, she would be miserable. Maybe Fraiser could be persuaded to provide a painkiller or two.
"Let's go," she said.
"I can't believe you outdrank him."
"Neither can Borzin. He tries a new liquor every time." Vala shrugged. If Borzin ever found something that did knock her out, she shuddered to think what he'd do to her. She knew it would end with her dead, because Borzin knew if it didn't she would come back and end him.
Lucky they understood each other so well. Vala didn't want to find a different shipyard to do the work on her ship. Borzin's people were good at their work.
"Say," Daniel asked as they headed into the city, "what is Jehan buying?"
"This and that. The whole ship's rather uncomfortable, you know, and all our things are still on my previous ship."
"Okay," he said slowly. "What are we going to do now?"
Vala eyed him, then clamped her hand possessively on his arm.
"Daniel, I can hardly go around wearing your awful Tau'ri uniforms now that I don't need to," she sold him. "We're going shopping too."
His groan made her laugh happily.
~*~
The month on Ushbos went quickly, but Janet was happy to leave it behind.
Next port would be Hebridan, where Vala had promised to release them. Daniel knew people there. They'd be able to get home or at least gate to the alpha site.
McKay had been McKay, whether he called himself Meredith or Rodney, but Vala and Jehan had been not unkind. Compared to the treatment she knew many teams had received at the hands of the Goa'uld and their Jaffa, they'd been generous humanitarians. She'd even had the chance to wander through the markets and stores in the port city, accompanying Jehan, with its sandstone walls and domed buildings like blue-painted hives, boots scuffing over a mosaic plaza hosting a fairground, the dust of an alien world settling into her pores. All something she wouldn't have been given the opportunity to enjoy as part of an SG mission, even given the change in regulations that had allowed her to accompany General Hammond's mission, but her pleasure in it was tainted.
Prometheus had been renamed Revenge. As a final touch, McKay and Jehan had painted a skull and crossbones on its hull after the refit and modifications had been finished. Revenge would not be continuing the mission to Pegasus. Janet's pleasant days on Ushbos, Novak's easy if rancorous partnership with McKay, and even Daniel's fascination with a culture that had successfully remade itself post-Goa'uld, came at the price of a failed rescue mission.
Daniel talked himself hoarse and it did no good. Vala Mal Doran was only interested in profit and even the promise of possible treasure in the Lost City didn't move her. McKay was blind with bitterness toward the SGC. Jehan remained an enigma, though he'd flinched when Daniel shouted that they couldn't just leave them behind.
Janet could think of no way to move any of them to change their minds.
~*~
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