“Yeah, Rusalla, I’ve already left a couple of messages. It appears they’re not getting through. And it’s very important that I speak with my dad. If there’s any way you could pull a few strings — call in a favor or two — I’d really, really appreciate it.”
Another silence. Sam covered the mike with her hand and
looked at Hammond. “Too idiomatic do you think, sir? Although
Dad can get pretty colorful. Should I — ”
“
Major Carter, I will relay your request to Jacob. If he and Selmak can answer you without compromising their current mission, they will. I’m afraid that is the best I can do
.”
Sam bit back what she really wanted to say and muttered
dammit
instead. Then she glanced at Hammond. The general nodded and mouthed,
That’s acceptable
. She nodded back and toggled the mike switch. “Rusalla, thank you very much. We’ll be standing by.”
“But for how long?” said Colonel O’Neill, hands shoved in his pockets, his expression disgruntled. “I mean, they
say
they’re going to get ahold of Jacob but for all we know they’re just yankin’ our chain.”
“You really think they’d do that?” said Colonel Dixon.
O’Neill looked at him. “I thought you said you’d read my mission reports.”
Dixon’s smile was faint, and brief. “Good point.”
“Jack’s right,” said Daniel. “We can’t wait indefinitely to hear
from Jacob. If we
are
going to Adjo then we should just go.”
“Easy there, tiger,” said the colonel. “You’re letting all that shrine stuff go to your head.”
“No, I’m not,” said Daniel, offended.
“Oh yes you are,” said the colonel, with affectionate scorn. “But I’m telling you, Daniel, I don’t care if you’ve got gold-engraved orders from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, you are
not
getting yourself mixed up in another religious rite fiasco like you did on — on — ”
“K5T-997,” said Daniel, helpfully. “And it wasn’t a religious rite fiasco. It was a perfectly understandable misunderstanding which would’ve been resolved a lot faster if
you
hadn’t — ”
Under cover of argument, Dixon looked at the general. “This happen a lot, does it, sir?”
Hammond smiled. “I have some phone calls to make,” he said, ending the dispute between Daniel and Colonel O’Neill. “Major Carter, give it half an hour. If we haven’t heard from your father by then we’ll assume he can’t break radio silence and we’ll revisit the question of asking someone else in the Tok’ra if they can assist us with our enquiries.” His gaze slid to Teal’c and back again. “But I must warn you, the President’s not too keen on that Plan B and neither am I.”
Sam nodded. “Yes, sir.”
The general left the control room. A moment later Teal’c departed too, without a word.
“Don’t worry about him, Carter,” said the colonel, catching her look. “He’ll be fine. He must’ve known Washington wouldn’t pay attention to an ancient Jaffa legend.”
“Not Washington, no,” she said, subdued. “But don’t you think he thought we would?”
“Thought we’d what?” The colonel stared at her, incredulous. “Substitute a fairy tale for science? Carter, are you coming down with something? Maybe Fraiser should check you out.”
Daniel cleared his throat. “She’s got a point, Jack. They may not be scientific, but fairytales are often — ”
“Oh, here we go,” muttered the colonel. “Daniel — ”
“
Are often based in fact
,” said Daniel stubbornly.
“Yeah, maybe, but in the meantime three thousand years have gone by! Have you
heard
of Chinese Whispers?”
“Come on, Jack, how many times have we uncovered a kernel of truth buried in the — ”
“You said we shouldn’t equate legend with fact. I
heard
you say it.”
“That’s right,” said Daniel. “But equally, we shouldn’t
dismiss
legend because it’s not fact. You know as well as I do, Jack, the two have crossed paths a lot in the last three years. Look at Ra, for God’s sake. If he’s not the living proof — ”
“You’re right, Daniel, he’s not,” said the colonel. “Because he’s dead. We killed him.”
“
Jack
— ”
Sergeant Harriman and the other person in the control room, Technician Farrell, were only just managing to hide their amusement. Dixon wasn’t even bothering to try.
“You should sell tickets, Major,” he remarked under cover of yet another energetic conversation.
Sam shook her head. “I should buy ear plugs. And don’t for a moment think we’re dismissing Teal’c’s concerns out of hand. He’s not the type to raise a red flag for the hell of it.” She chewed the edge of one fingernail. “I should recheck the telemetry. Maybe I missed something in the MALP or UAV readouts. I could’ve made a mistake in the — ”
“Oh please,” said O’Neill, who was disconcertingly capable of following at least three different conversations at the same time. “How likely is that?”
“Thank you, sir. I appreciate the sentiment. But — ”
“Carter, we’re going to be careful,” said the colonel, losing a little of his goodnatured scorn. “We’re always careful.”
“And yet —
how
many times have you ended up in the infirmary? Sir?”
“Eleven,” said Dixon. “Not including minor scrapes, bangs and bruises.”
“You counted?” said Daniel, diverted.
“You
remembered
?” said the colonel. “Dixon — ”
“Sorry,” said Dixon, shrugging. “I read the mission reports, remember? And I’ve got a brain built for trivia.”
“Which you’re giving
way
too much exercise,” said the colonel. “I’m saying this one more time and then I’m done. We need this mission. We’re going on this mission. We — ”
“Sir?” said Technician Farrell, turning away from his post. “Sorry to interrupt, Colonel, but it looks like we’ve got incoming.”
“Get Hammond,” the colonel said to Dixon, then nodded to Farrell. “Well, what are you waiting for? Pick up the phone. Carter?”
Heart thumping, she pushed out of the chair and joined Farrell at his work station, the deep space communications bank. Just as she reached him the comm unit speakers crackled to life.
“—
contacting the SGC over secure channels. Do you read? SGC, this is Jacob Carter. Do you copy
?”
Farrell scooted out of the way and handed her a headset. “Yeah, Dad, this is Sam. We copy,” she replied. “The connection’s good. Are you practically next door or is it a case of God bless Tok’ra technology?”
“
It’s a case of what the hell’s the emergency? Are Mark and the kids okay? Are you? Has anything
— ”
“No, sorry, they’re fine! Dad, they’re fine!” She swallowed another curse. She should’ve realized family would be his first thought. “I’m fine too. This is business. We need to know what you can tell us about a former Goa’uld-controlled planet called Adjo.”
“
What? Sam, didn’t Vorash tell you I’m on a tricky assignment here? Didn’t we make it clear that every tim
e you break radio silence to contact us there’s a chance the Goa’uld could pinpoint our location
?”
“I’ll answer that one, Major,” said General Hammond, returning to the control room with Dixon behind him.
“Sir,” she said, stinging, and handed him her headset.
“Jacob, it’s George,” said the general. “Sorry to bother you in the middle of a mission but I really need an answer on this. We’ve located what could be an invaluable supply of essential resources, significant enough to change the course of our fight against the Goa’uld. Unfortunately Teal’c’s raised some concerns about the location that I need to address. Is there anything you or Selmak can tell us?”
“
About a planet called Adjo? No. We’ve never heard of it
.”
“So maybe for once no news is good news,” said the colonel. “Yee haw.”
The speakers crackled again. “
Does Teal’c have any hard intel on the planet’s status
?”
“No. He has anecdotal evidence only. Vague warnings, Jaffa legends. That sort of thing.”
“
Well, I don’t know, George. I mean, you’ve no reason
to doubt him but — it sounds pretty fluffy to me
.”
Hammond’s lips twitched. “Fluffy?”
“
You know what I mean. George, if you like I can do some digging once I’ve dealt with — what I’m dealing with. Might be a few days, though. In the meantime I recommend y
ou use your best judgment. You guys know what you’re doing, most of the time. Look, I gotta go. Tell Sam I’m sorry I barked at her
.”
“Okay, Jacob. Thanks. SGC out.”
“So!” said the colonel, as Hammond passed the headset to Technician Farrell. “Time to see the doctor?”
“Not quite yet,” the general replied. “I’ve a couple of things to do before I hit the green light on this one.”
The colonel nodded. “And Fraiser can’t run our bloodwork more than twenty-four hours before we go.”
“Why’s that?” asked Colonel Dixon.
“Microbes,” said O’Neill, vaguely. “Ask Fraiser. She’s almost as good as Carter at boring your pants off with scientific trivia.”
She pulled a face. “Thank you, sir.”
“You’re welcome.” He looked at Hammond. “Guess I’ll get to finishing that Adjo strategic assessment, General.”
“Yes, you do that,” said the general. “I need it for the Pentagon ASAP.”
“And I’ll be in my lab,” said Daniel, as the general withdrew. “Double-checking what I’ve got on the likely cultural backgrounds of the humans Seth and Ra would’ve taken as seed stock back in the day. Of course there’ll have been some cultural drift between then and now but we’ve seen before that absent technological advances the original cultural imprinting tends to remain — ”
“Sounds fascinating,” said the colonel. “Have fun. I’m going now. Dixon? You want to join me?”
“Sure,” said Colonel Dixon, then glanced at the wall-clock. “So long as you don’t mind me bugging out on you in about an hour’s time. Logan’s due to ship out with SG-6 at 1530. I planned on wishing him
bon voyage
.”
“He’s going offworld already?” said Sam. “Gee, that’s fast.” She hadn’t even met the other men from the Pentagon strike team yet. She’d hardly set foot out of her lab or Research Central for over twenty-four hours.
Where did my life go
? I’m sure I had one…
“SG-6’s mission’s been delayed twice already,” said Colonel O’Neill. “And the folks they’re slated to visit were getting offended.” He glanced at Dixon. “Your man’ll be fine, Dixon. He’s got a good track record.”
Colonel Dixon nodded. “Frank handpicked him. Chances are he’ll have my job one day.”
A short silence, then Colonel O’Neill turned for the door. “Okay kids, that’s enough gossiping. Let’s get to work.”
His expression noncommittal, Dixon followed the colonel out.
“Oh boy,” said Daniel, under his breath.
If they’d been alone she might have said something, but Harriman and Farrell were still in the control room. So she just stared through the door and watched Dixon disappearing down the spiral staircase behind O’Neill.
I like him. I really like him. Please God let there not be a second shoe waiting to drop
.
In the three years Teal’c had lived on the base, Hammond had never once stepped foot in his quarters. The rest of SG-1 came and went as a matter of routine and friendship, but he’d always felt it was important to leave Teal’c one small space in his circumscribed life that was free of official presence and memory.
This time, with so much at stake, he was ready to make an exception.
“General Hammond,” said Teal’c, on opening his door. “How may I be of assistance?”
The room was full of candles, softly burning. “I’m sorry, Teal’c. Did I interrupt your
kel’noreem?
”
“No, General. I was about to commence when you knocked. It can wait. Please enter,” he said and stood aside to make room.
Always polite. Hammond crossed the threshold. “Thank you.”
“You wish to discuss Adjo?” said Teal’c, closing the door.
Hammond felt his lips purse. On a day-to-day basis it was easy to forget that the Jaffa was a man who’d lived for over a century. Who’d done the bidding of beings he’d regarded as gods. Who’d committed acts in their names that the most conservative of thinkers would label atrocities. Who, when you thought about it, considerably outranked him in the grand scheme of things. On a day-to-day basis it was easy to forget all that, because Teal’c looked like a young man barely into his fourth decade and he wore his mantle of authority lightly, like an invisible cloak.
“No, Teal’c, not Adjo,” he said, standing not quite at ease in the plain, candlelit room. “Not exactly. I want to discuss with you my reasons for discounting your advice on going there. I want to make sure you understand it has nothing to do with my professional or personal feelings for you and the daily contributions you make to my command. The sacrifices you’ve willingly embraced for a planet and a people to whom you owe no true loyalty.”