Cat's Eyes A Highlander/SG-1 Xover By Tasha Part 5 O'Neill stormed into the control room. "They just broke back into the gate room," he told the General, more than a little exasperated. "They just turned around and fought their way back in." "But that can't use the gate," Daniel pointed out, blissfully ignoring military protocol as usual. "Quite right, doctor," Hammond concluded, "the question we have to ask is what is their game?" Command had moved into the control room, and now the whole of SG-1 was gathered there. Hammond had refused to let Carter and Teal'c join the fighting, he wanted their expertise with him, and now that Jack had returned the group was complete. O'Neill couldn't help feeling just a little like it was them against the rest of the universe ... again. Suddenly the com. system hissed nastily. "What the hell..." Jack never completed the comment. "Humans, we will speak with you." The voice was as cold and as ruthless as any Goa'uld Jack had heard before. There was a monster the other side of the blast shield and O'Neill had to swallow his urge to blow up the speaker that issued its voice. Hammond hesitated only a second and then reached for the microphone. "Why should we speak with invaders?" There was a laugh from the other end of the communication. "Because you wish to avoid further bloodshed," the voice returned, "and because we have several of your people. Their deaths will not be pleasant." "Harm any one of them and there will be no talking at all," Hammond told them very quickly. The same contemptuous laugh greeted the words. "However you wish to see it," the negotiator replied. "Call your people off and I will guarantee their safety ... for now." Hammond looked at O'Neill and they both knew they were being led by the nose, but they had no choice. "Lieutenant," Hammond turned to one of the soldiers stood at the back of the room, "make sure our people hold their positions, but tell the commanders there are to be no offensives until I tell them differently." The officer saluted and left. "I will assume you are negotiating in good faith," the voice from the gate room said. "The deal is this: you will activate the gate for the co-ordinates we give you, and we will pass through, leaving your people and this facility behind us." "That's impossible," Hammond told them plainly. "Then you will hear the screams and see the blood of many more of your people," the voice replied. "Bring the woman here." The Goa'uld had definitely left the mike open so that those in the command centre could hear exactly what was going on. "We shall execute them one by one, and then we shall destroy this place." There was the scream of a woman from inside the room, and the sound of her being dragged where she did not wish to go. "Wait," Hammond could not let anything happen to his people, and Jack could feel the conflict radiating from him. Opening the gate, and aiding the invaders would be in direct violation of all protocol, but that had never stopped the General doing the right thing. O'Neill did not envy his superior at all. "What guarantee do we have that you will not harm our people after we open the Stargate?" the General asked. "There is none," the voice returned, "only the knowledge that we wish to leave, and disposing of your people would slow us down. If they do not try and obstruct us, we will let them live. Any attempt to prevent us leaving will, however, result in their deaths." There was no emotion in the voice, it was cold and calculating, Jack did not doubt that it would carry out its threat. Hammond cut the mike and looked at his companions. "With all due respect, General," O'Neill told him, "getting them out of this facility is our first priority. We may not exactly win if we open the Stargate, but it's a better scenario than fighting it out." The General looked at him silently for a moment, and Jack almost decided that he had been out of line. Then Hammond nodded. "I happen to agree with you, Colonel." He opened the mike once more. "We'll open the gate," he told the enemy, "but I want our people out of that room first." "Do you think we are fools, human?" the voice sounded angry. "You have my word as an officer of the US Air Force, that once our people are free the gate will be activated," Hammond returned sincerely. "We do it our way or not at all." There was silence from the other side of the communication. "You give us little choice, human," the voice said slowly. "If your word is worth nothing you will pay with the lives of all your people." "Colonel, go down and make sure those technicians are safe," the General instructed calmly. "Everyone else, prepare to open the Stargate." ===================================================================== The moment the three terrified hostages walked through the half-open gate room door into the safety of their comrades, O'Neill signalled Hammond and the Stargate jumped into life. The medical team swooped down on the three technicians, and Jack followed as the two men and one woman were whisked off to sickbay. Military efficiency and a desire to make sure none of them had been booby trapped, meant no one was paying much attention to them. Every five seconds someone would ask them a question, and like the good little soldiers they were they'd answer, but nobody really gave them much chance to speak on their own. It was only as they were sat down in sickbay that anyone actually started to listen to them. "They took someone," one of the two men said suddenly, "they took someone with them." O'Neill blanched and turned on the spot. Once again the Goa'uld had betrayed any trust in them. Hammond had to know about this. ====================================================================== SG-1, Dr Faiser and General Hammond sat round the briefing table, and no body was looking happy with the world. Sam couldn't help trying to assess how her friends were dealing with this, as they sat in silence waiting for the General to finish scanning the report in front of him. O'Neill looked angry, something nasty had happened on his watch, and he didn't like it one little bit. For his part Daniel was coping better than Jack, and although he looked agitated, he definitely didn't look like he wanted to kill anyone. Teal'c was looking like he always did, but Sam knew him well enough to know that if he ground his teeth any harder there would be squeaking noises coming our of his mouth. Then there was Janet, Florence Nightingale to SGC, and at the moment thoroughly pissed off with the world. If a Goa'uld had appeared at that moment, Sam decided there would have been little between whether Janet, or O'Neill got to it first. "These variations on the ribbon device they use," Hammond asked in a tone that revealed no matter how calm he looked, he was as wound up as everyone else, "do we have any idea how they work?" "From the eye witness reports and analysis of the residues left behind," Dr Faiser offered the explanation, "in Shu's case his weapon seems to use some form of energy to remove all water from a body. All that was left of Private Selby was a small pile of minerals. Tefnut's ribbon device is even nastier; it transmits a form of fungal growth. On it's own it's not a danger to human life, but the assumption is that she then uses the device to accelerate it's formation. Once it has a hold on something it decomposes it, reducing it to base substances. Lieutenant Hallow was a small pool of ooze when we found him." Sam tried very hard not to think about exactly what the doctor was describing, it was just too horrible. Instead of letting her imagination run away with her she just filed the information under the dangerous weapons section in her brain and waited for the conversation to continue. "Nice people," O'Neill commented as Janet finished her description. "It's part of their image," Daniel gave his input. "In ancient Egyptian culture, Shu is the god of dry air, desert winds, he holds up the sky. What better way to enforce your power than turn people to sand. Tefnut is his opposite, goddess of moisture, often associated with the corruption of decay. These Goa'uld seem to take their roles very seriously." "And they're just as slippery and underhand as all the others we've ever met," Jack concluded. "What I want to know is why they took the kid." "As do I," the General agreed. "Do we have anything on that?" It had been Sam's job to interview those who had come in contact with the invaders, but she wasn't exactly happy with the amount of information she had gleaned. "The three technicians who were used as human shields all agree that the Goa'uld seemed to think there was something unusual about Ryan," the Major began her report. "Unfortunately they were under fire at the time and they were more worried about being shot at than exactly what Shu and Tefnut were doing. Private Kilner remembers seeing two bodies when they were forced into the corridor and at the time both appeared dead. It really doesn't make much sense for the Goa'uld to take an interest in a downed man." "Unless there's something more to this enemy thing," O'Neill suggested with a shrug. Everyone looked at Teal'c who merely raised an eyebrow. "I have told you all I know about the Enemy," the Jaffa told the rest of the room. "They appear in legend as Tau'ri opposition to the Goa'uld invaders. The stories mention that they are different in some way, but I have never heard how. It is told in such a way that I do not believe it is truly known. The only one who can answer your questions is Adam Pierson." Sam swung her gaze towards Daniel, and out of the corner of her eye saw everyone else do the same. "As far as I knew he was just another linguist," the anthropologist said slowly after a moment's pause, "a very good one at that, but just another academic all the same. I've never noticed anything strange about him. I suggest we just tell him the truth and ask him." Sam wasn't so sure they'd get a straight answer out of their guest. She hadn't really trusted him the moment she'd laid eyes on him, and whether it had been woman's intuition or a healthy dose of paranoia didn't matter any more: Pierson had too many secrets. The Major suspected that to get any straight answers out of their guest they would have to back him into a corner. "He's more likely to open up to Daniel," Sam found herself saying. "I don't think he's going to talk to the rest of us." "You may be right, Major," General Hammond agreed. "We need to know exactly what we're dealing with here. We've lost some good people today, and I don't want to loose anymore. There's no way we can risk sending a rescue party, but at least we can find out why the Goa'uld took Ryan. Will you do it Dr Jackson?" Daniel nodded even though he didn't look too pleased. "Of course," he said quietly. Sam could sympathise with him, sometimes the line between friends and duty could be a hard one. ===================================================================== Daniel walked towards where he had left Adam three hours previously, very slowly. The anthropologist didn't know how he was going to tell his friend about Richie's disappearance, let alone broach the subject of why the Goa'uld might have wanted the young man in the first place. "What the hell's been going on?" were the first words out of Adam's mouth as Daniel walked through the door. "We were invaded," the archaeologist told his companion evenly. "You were right, Shu and Tefnut came through the gate instead of SG-2." That seemed to take the fight right out of Adam, and he sat down. "What happened," he asked, "were they killed?" Daniel shook his head slowly. "They had hostages," he explained, still trying to figure out how to tell Adam the whole truth. "They negotiated passage back the way they came and retreated." His friend looked him straight in the eye, and Daniel knew he was caught. "What aren't you telling me?" he asked simply. "We didn't realise at the time," Daniel finally admitted, "but they had another prisoner other than the technicians with them in the gate room. They took Richie with them, I'm so sorry." Adam looked totally stunned and the archaeologist watched as the colour drained out of his face. "But why?" he said very quietly. "According to the other hostages," Daniel explained, "they found him when they were trying to invade the facility. He was caught in an explosion and was hurt. They remember Shu thinking there was something unusual about Richie. More than that we don't know." Adam's eyes went totally cold, and Daniel suddenly didn't recognise the man sitting in front of him. The normally relaxed, friendly lines of his friend's face were suddenly hard and Daniel knew Adam was now deadly serious. "We have to get him back," the man who had become a stranger said with absolute clarity. "This is more important than you could possibly imagine." Daniel didn't know why, but he believed him instantly. There was one snag, however - he might believe, but how could he convince the military. Hammond had already vetoed O'Neill's request to retrieve Richie. Jack had asked as soon as they'd found out someone was missing, he hadn't cared who it was. The General had refused point blank. "I have to know why," Daniel said after several seconds' silence. "General Hammond won't let a rescue party through the gate. We'll need a damn good reason." For a moment the archaeologist almost recognised his friend again as the man took a moment to think. "Can your General be trusted?" he asked slowly. "If I put my life and the lives of others in his hands will he stand by us?" Teal'c's situation immediately sprung into Daniel's mind and he did not hesitate. "Yes." Adam was silent for a moment longer, as if considering a very heavy question. "How about the rest of SG-1?" he asked. "You can trust them as much as you trust me," Daniel told him. "Then I need to see them all," Adam said emphatically, "and quickly." ===================================================================== Daniel had left quickly after Methos' ultimatum, and the Immortal was left to his own thoughts. He had made the decision that these people would have to be told something as soon as he'd heard what had happened, but that didn't mean he knew what to explain. How could he tell military officers about the threat that Richie could pose and not end up with a witch-hunt on his hands? Daniel had been adamant that his friends could be trusted, but Methos had been betrayed before in his life, and he sure as hell didn't want it to happen again. The problem was, the possibilities Richie's kidnap threw into his head were much worse than most other things he could imagine. The idea of Immortals being pursued by humans was one thing, but the thought of a planet subjugated by the Goa'uld, their minions seeking out every Immortal they could find: it was just too horrible. Goa'uld in Immortal bodies just didn't bear thinking about. The Game would be irrelevant, hell, just about everything but staying alive would be irrelevant. What choice was there? He'd seen the power of the Goa'uld before, and it had taken many lives and a lot of luck to fight them then. With an incentive like Immortal hosts to back their armies what hope would Earth have at all? It was time to make a stand, whether Methos liked the idea or not. The oldest living Immortal knew he was going to have to reveal what he was and his devious mind began to form a plausible story that would give him knowledge but play down his part in the Stargate mystery. There was no way he was going to admit that he was a commander of a legion in the rebellion. End of Part 5