CHAPTER ONE
Jacob Carter stepped through the wormhole and onto the SGC ramp, feeling his mood lift almost instantly. As much as he loved seeing all of the different worlds he travelled to with the Tok’ra, there was just something about the smell of Earth that he missed.
‘You can’t possibly detect “the smell of Earth” this far under a mountain. It is my nose as well, and to me this place smells like a bunker full of warriors and scientists. Hardly what one would hope represented Earth as a whole.’
Jacob smiled. ‘Just humour me, Sel. It’s good to be home.’ His smile widened as he caught sight of his daughter at the end of the ramp. He met her at the bottom and gave her a hug. “Sam, I missed you, kiddo.”
“Me too, Dad.”
He pulled out of her embrace and turned to General Hammond. “George, nice to see you.”
Hammond shook the offered hand. “Jacob, what brings you here?”
“Can SG-1 meet us in the briefing room? We need some help with something.” Jacob glanced up at the control room above them. Speak of the devil. Most of SG-1 was already there. Jack stared down at him, dressed in civvies and looking annoyed. Oops. Jacob must have interrupted plans for impending down time. Daniel at least was still in BDUs. He smiled, raising his hand in greeting. Jacob waved back and then followed the General and Sam out the door and up the stairs to the briefing room.
Jacob sat next to Sam and Daniel on one side of the table, with Hammond at the head and Jack on the other. Teal’c joined them shortly thereafter.
“What’s this about, Jacob?” Hammond asked.
“As you know, the Tok’ra have been studying the Telchak device Daniel recovered and are attempting to develop a method of killing Anubis’s Kull warriors.”
Daniel shuddered, no doubt at the memory of his trip to Honduras. Jacob didn’t know the details, but from what little he’d gleaned in the debriefing after he, Sam, Teal’c and Bra’tac had returned from Tartarus, it had been bad.
Next to him, Sam’s arm moved under the table as she placed a sympathetic hand on Daniel’s knee. To Jacob’s surprise, Daniel placed his hand over hers, squeezing what looked to be a thank you. Ouch. If he was still accepting comfort in public, Jacob would have to reassess his opinion of Daniel’s Central American experience to very bad.
‘You see? That is what I would call a lingering touch.’
Jacob sighed inwardly. Selmak had somehow got it into his head that there was something going on between the two scientists. Jacob, while he wasn’t against the idea, was fairly certain his symbiote was delusional.
‘Maybe I’m not the delusional one, human.’
“How’s that going, anyway?” Jack asked.
Selmak’s delusions? Oh, right. The Telchak weapon. Jacob shrugged. “It’s going. We’ve made some strides, though not as many as Selmak and I had hoped for by now. To be honest, Anise is driving us crazy.”
Sam snorted and quickly tried to cover it with a cough. Good to know other people were annoyed by Anise too.
‘You think they’ve enjoyed her experiments on them?’ Selmak asked.
Good point. “We’re also still trying to get used to the new Alpha Site labs, and the rising tensions between the Tok’ra and the Free Jaffa haven’t made it any easier. I’d like to request Sam’s help in finishing the weapon. We could use her expertise.”
“That’s all you wanted?” Jack asked, pushing his chair back and standing. “Great. Carter’ll get to futz with thingamabobs, and I can still get to Denver in time for the puck drop. Assuming Siler hasn’t left yet.” Daniel looked up at Jack with a faintly disapproving expression. “What? I told him the tickets were only his conditionally.”
“Sit down, Jack,” Jacob said. “I’m sorry about your hockey game, but Sam’s help with the weapon isn’t what I’m here for. That’s just a request for when we get back.”
“Back?” Jack fell back into his seat with a sigh. “We going somewhere?”
“Yes. A planet called Tzabek. Anubis has a new base there. One of our operatives infiltrated the ranks of the Goa’uld in charge, who you’ve met before.” He smiled. “Any guesses?”
Jack shrugged and waited. Hammond was looking at Jacob thoughtfully. Sam shook her head. Daniel was idly tracing the grain of the wood on the table in front of him, staring at his fingers with an intensity that suggested to Jacob that he had the answer but hadn’t yet caught up to it.
‘Believe what you wish,’ Selmak taunted. ‘He won’t guess it.’
Teal’c’s head tilted. “I have not previously heard of Tzabek.”
Suddenly, Daniel’s head jerked up. “Zipacna.”
‘Mai’tac.’
Jacob grinned and narrowly suppressed the urge to mentally thumb his nose at his symbiote. “Thanks, Daniel. You just won me a bet with Selmak on whether or not you’d figure it out.”
“Oh, that’s just great.” Jack scowled, crossing his arms over his chest. “I have such fond memories of Zipacna. Most of which involve trying very hard not to punch him in the face. Daniel? Dare I ask how we know this?”
“Tza-bek is the Mayan name for the Pleiades, which you probably know as the Seven Sisters constellation, Jack. Since Zipacna is a demon from Maya mythology, and Jacob said we’d met this Goa’uld before...” Daniel looked like he might keep going with his explanation, but then he hesitated and turned to Jacob. “Wait. You placed a bet with your symbiote? About me?”
“Yep.” Jacob smiled at the archaeologist. “I owe you one.”
Sam shot him a questioning look. “What in the world did you bet?”
Jacob was a bit embarrassed at the juvenile nature of the bet, though that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to savour the reward. “Uh, this time it was who got to tell Anise she was being replaced.” He turned to Hammond. “That’s assuming you’ll let me borrow Sam once we’re back.”
“That will depend on exactly what this proposed mission will entail. You haven’t made that clear, Jacob.”
No, he supposed he hadn’t. “Sorry, George. The operative we have at Zipacna’s base, Hanyah, has missed her last two scheduled reports. Her last message included simplified schematics of the base at Tzabek, as well as its operation.” He paused, mostly for dramatic effect. Side effect of having a symbiote, he supposed. “Anubis has found a new queen.”
Sam’s head snapped up. “What? Already?”
“That’s what I said. It seems Anubis was already setting this second queen up when we killed his first one. We’re not sure if he wanted a backup, or if he thought production of the Kull warriors would proceed quickly enough that two queens would be necessary. Zipacna has apparently succeeded in making the base fully operational in record time. However, it’ll take time for Anubis to move his lab to Tzabek, especially without Thoth’s help. And because the queen is apparently in the middle of a spawn cycle, he can’t easily move her to Tartarus. The Tok’ra High Council feels this is the best opportunity we’ll have to destroy her, and cripple the future production of Kulls.”
“The planet has a gate, right?” Jack asked. “Dial it up and shove a bomb through. Wham, bam, thank you Zippy.”
Jacob sighed. “You really believe we didn’t think of that, Jack?”
Jack shrugged. “I just want to know why you need us.”
“The gate at Tzabek is defended with an energy shield, much like the one at Tartarus. And not only can this one stop any bomb or invasion force we could send through, it is reportedly capable of stopping Kull warriors.”
Judging by the way Sam’s eyes lit up, that part had interested her. “Zipacna has a shield that can trap a supersoldier?”
“He’s not using it as a trap, but we see no reason the technology couldn’t be adapted.” Jacob grinned.
‘We don’t know that for sure, Jacob,’ Selmak said.
‘I know my daughter. She won’t be able to resist. And if it’s possible to adapt it, she’ll make it happen.’
Sure enough, Sam went for the bait, turning to Jack and Hammond. “Sirs, I have to see this.”
Jack shot an irritated glance at Jacob and heaved a heavy sigh. “Of course you do, Carter. Okay, I may know why ‘we’ want to go, Jacob, but I still haven’t heard why you need us.”
“As usual,. we don’t have any spare operatives to pull this off. We need you to go in and destroy the place. Blow up the queen. Get a look at the shield. Feel free to take out Zipacna while you’re at it, but don’t risk either of the other objectives to do so.”
“We will be travelling by ship?” Teal’c asked.
“Yep. It’s actually a fairly ingenious location for a base. It’s remote. The next closest gate is on a planet which is part of the Asgard Protected Planets Treaty and is guarded by a hammer device, guaranteeing that any System Lord wishing to launch an invasion has to travel a lot further to do so. And while Anubis apparently hasn’t seen fit to share the sensor technology of Tartarus with him, Zipacna has adapted the shield on his own. Seems there isn’t a lot of trust lost between the two of them.”
Jacob paused to listen to a rant from Selmak which at this point had become almost a soothing refrain. He chuckled. “Selmak really loathes Zipacna, not only because of his attack on Revanna, but because he’s fairly creative for a Goa’uld. It makes him more unpredictable.”
Daniel nodded slowly. “He was quick enough to change strategies during Skaara’s Triad after he lost his ‘nothing of the host survives’ argument.”
“Yeah, that’s ‘cause he knew he was full of crap.”
“I’m not sure he did, Jack,” Daniel said. “I think he might have changed strategies because he saw his wasn’t working, not because of any change of heart.”
“Whatever. Doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Jacob wants us to go on a mission to kick some Gould ass, and Carter is practically drooling over the techno-weirdness possibilities she could learn.” Jack turned to look at both Jacob and Sam. “Does that about sum it up?”
“Pretty much,” Jacob agreed. “What do you think, George?”
“Forgive me, Jacob,” Hammond said, “but the Tok’ra have never been fond of letting us borrow their equipment. They’re just going to lend us a ship?”
This was the uncomfortable part. “Uh, no. They’re lending me the ship. I’ll be going along. We’ll be gating to the Alpha site, where the Tel’tak we’ll be taking is waiting.”
“Always has to be a cargo ship, doesn’t it? Couldn’t you just once spare something larger than a sardine can?” Jack asked.
“How many Ha’taks you think we have lying around in the garage, Jack?” Jacob asked. “Relax. You’ll like this one. We’ve managed to outfit it with a cloaking device and defensive shields and everything.”
“Big honking space gun?”
Selmak snorted internally.
“Okay, maybe not everything,” Jacob said.
Hammond leaned forward and crossed his hands on the briefing room table, frowning. “I’ve also noticed that the Tok’ra do not hold my people’s safety in high regard. Jacob. Selmak. I want your promise that this mission is achievable.”
Jacob bowed his head, letting Selmak take over. “I assure you, General Hammond, that although this mission will be risky, both Jacob and I have every confidence that SG-1 can accomplish it.”
Hammond studied him for a long moment before turning to Jack. “Colonel?”
“Yes, sir?”
“It’s your mission, if you want it.”
Jack glanced at his team. Sam’s blue eyes were pleading with an expression that, in the past, had bested even Jacob’s stubbornness. Teal’c inclined his head to indicate his agreement, and Daniel shrugged and nodded. “Then I guess we’ll be going,” Jack said.
“Very well. You have a go. Be ready to depart at 0700. Dismissed.”
Hammond got up and left, followed by Jack, Teal’c and Daniel.
Excellent. Jacob took over once more. Now he just had to wrangle an off-base dinner invitation out of Sam. He was dying for a decent steak.
‘Perhaps you should arrange for Dr. Jackson to come along, too. I believe the Tau’ri often initiate romantic relationships over a meal?’
Jacob snorted, apparently aloud. He waved away Sam’s puzzled look. ‘Usually not with their fathers along for the ride, Sel. Will you stop already? Her love life is none of our business.’
‘You should make it your business. She’s your daughter. You can’t tell me you don’t see it. She cares for him. He cares for her. They clearly need some help recognizing the next step.’
Forget the steak. What he needed was coffee. Something strong and thick. Preferably Turkish. Selmak gave an internal grunt of disgust, which amused Jacob. ‘Ready to shut up now?’
‘Coffee should be deemed cruel and unusual punishment. My next host will be much more cooperative, I’m sure.’
‘Oh, you’re lucky I put up with you as it is. You’re hardly Miss Congeniality.’ Jacob ignored the rest of Selmak’s good-natured grumbling and turned his attention back to his daughter. He was looking forward to the mission and the opportunity it would provide to relax and catch up with Sam. Three days there, a quick infiltration and destruction of the queen and hopefully Zipacna, and then three days back. What could go wrong?