SGC, Earth…
The inner wheel of the Stargate spun a final time, locking the point of origin glyph into the powerful device. The subspace path engaged and the event horizon settled into a slightly rippling pool of a watery illusion. But it was obscured on this occasion; an iris of cold hard titanium was closed over the mouth of the Stargate. If anybody tried to walk through this incoming subspace path their molecules would have no place to be reintegrated…but the Stargate's systems did not know this and so would reintegrate the matter it received within the point four micron space that was available in front of the iris. A standard complement of SF's rushed into the gate room bearing their weapons and the two large 50 caliber machine guns were manned on either side of the embarkation ramp, in case the iris should fail.
General Hammond and Colonel O'Neill stood behind the main controller operating the Stargate, an Air Force Master Sergeant.
"No off world teams are due," said General Hammond.
"Receiving no identification code from the traveler…" said the Sergeant, but trailed off as he saw the iris to the gate beginning to wobble and eventually open with the sound of a hundred swords sliding against each other.
"I did not give the order to open the iris, Sergeant," barked Hammond.
"It opened by itself, sir," said the perplexed Sergeant.
There was a slight ripple in the event horizon as Harry calmly passed through it, his silver chromesuit glistening in the lights.
"About time he showed up," murmured O'Neill.
"Stand down!" barked Hammond into the microphone next to the Stargate controller; the assembled contingent of SFs lowered their weapons. Harry walked slowly down the ramp and was met by Hammond and O'Neill.
"Greetings, General, Colonel," said Harry, bowing his head slightly.
"Ambassador," greeted the General. Harry felt he would never get used to being called that.
"You know," said O'Neill sarcastically. "Being a representative of the Asgard to Earth, generally does mean you have to be on Earth."
"I've just been gone for a week," explained Harry patiently. "And I have other endeavors against the Goa'uld that require my attention. I gave you the subspace transponder specifically to summon me in an emergency should I be off world. Now, where is Dr Jackson, he wanted to see any samples of Asgard art and culture I could bring for him that he could examine."
"Perhaps this is a conversation we should have in the briefing room," said General Hammond in a rather solemn manner. And sure enough Harry was soon seated in the comfortable high backed leather chair in the aforementioned room and joining them was Dr Frasier and Major Carter. The mood of everyone around him was instantly obvious.
"What's wrong?"
"Dr Jackson has been confined to a psychiatric facility for his own safety and treatment," said General Hammond. "He's been diagnosed with schizophrenia."
"Well," said Harry eventually. "I obviously have only recently come to know Dr Jackson but he seemed perfectly sane to me, and given that schizophrenia is almost always a result of a genetic disorder; I would have to say that there has to be an external factor to his condition."
"The only working hypothesis we could come up with is something we need your expertise on," said Dr Frasier. "Could extended use of the Stargate cause any disruption in brain activity?" Harry closed his eyes for a moment appearing to think hard and then opened them again.
"No," said Harry flatly.
"No?" asked O'Neill inquiringly.
Harry sighed impatiently. "During the Goa'uld 1st Dynasty, they were also quite interested if any long term effects would occur due to gate travel on the symbiotes. So…to test the theory they repeatedly pushed a human slave through a subspace path in one direction, and back in the other direction every day over a period of a year. They then subjected the slave to all sorts of physical and psychological tests and finally killed him to do a post mortem examination of his brain tissue." Everyone winced at the story.
"Their conclusions?" said Dr Carter, an angry and disgusted expression on her face.
"That the subspace flux experienced by the energy that your body is turned into when traveling through a subspace path is so miniscule that even over the long term, the error ratio that occurs when your body is rematerialized is less than one ten thousandth of a percent," said Harry succinctly. "There are no long term psychological side effects from gate use. So you can all do yourselves a big favor and get Dr Jackson out of there."
At this point an airman interrupted the meeting stating that there was an urgent call for O'Neill, which he took from a nearby wall-mounted phone.
"Dr Jackson is not our only recent unexplainable problem," said the General next. "Teal'C fell severely ill shortly after Dr Jackson was hospitalized and all attempts to find out why have proven unsuccessful."
"A Jaffa falling ill?" asked Harry slightly incredulously. The larval symbiote that a Jaffa carries protects them from nearly all types of diseases. A sick Jaffa was unheard of.
"Well, it seems for some reason his larval symbiote is also dying," said Dr Frasier with visible frustration. "No diagnostic I have tried has shown anything wrong with the symbiote, by all appearances it should not be happening."
"Yet, it is," said Harry unnecessarily. "What did SG-1 encounter on your last mission?"
"We found the site of the remains of a lesser league of Goa'uld, the Linvus," said Carter. "We've not been able to tell what had killed them, but we've ruled out all the likely candidates on who killed them, except the System Lords."
At this point O'Neill returned to the meeting by putting down the phone, "Well, it seems that Daniel must know something about what's going on."
"How so?" asked Dr Frasier.
"He knew that Teal'C was sick, even though none of us had been in contact with him since the visit to the psychiatric facility," said O'Neill. "He convinced Dr Mackenzie to call me and find out. He's requesting my presence."
"Go," ordered the General.
888888888888888888
Harry stood just outside the protective plastic tarp around Teal'C's bed, numerous monitors and life support equipment was clustered around the former Jaffa. Teal'C was bathed in a cold sweat and his eyes were moving quite rapidly behind his eyelids. At this point a haggard looking Daniel dressed in blue SGC fatigues entered the room with Major Carter and O'Neill following in his wake.
"Hello, Dr Jackson," greeted Harry.
"Harry," said Daniel in response but his eyes turned to stare worriedly at Teal'C.
"Feeling better, I trust?"
"Much, thanks," said Daniel, "have you been able to make anything of Teal'C's condition?"
"I've looked at Dr Frasier's analysis of the larval symbiote's condition," said Harry in deep thought. "It's clearly reacting as if it was being attacked on a cellular level by something, but whatever is doing this is very well hidden."
"Well, I think I have an idea about that," said Daniel. "Do you know a man by name of Machello?"
"It sounds familiar, but I can't recall at the moment," said Harry, while he had learned and retained most of the knowledge from the Tok'ra symbiote Jamilla when he was blended with her, it was sometimes quite difficult to recall knowledge or memories that was too specific.
"He was part of a race of humans about a hundred years ahead of us in terms of technology, but still not much of a match for the Goa'uld," explained Daniel. "He was a man I think on par with Da Vinci in terms of his inventive genius, but instead of using it to produce art and science, he turned it towards fighting the Goa'uld. He engineered all sorts of devices and inventions solely for the purpose of killing, maiming or disabling symbiotes."
"And you think you might have come into contact with something when you found the dead Linvus Goa'uld?"
"Exactly," said Daniel, "I think I picked it up then and because I didn't have any Goa'uld in me, a side-effect of carrying it was me becoming schizophrenic. Then when Teal'C and the others came to visit, I started acting crazy and Teal'C had to subdue me, I saw something go out of me and into him and then I heard Machello's voice thanking me for delivering him to the vile Goa'uld."
"Assuming this theory of a Goa'uld killing invention is correct," said Major Carter, "why did it take so long to go into Teal'C? You were in his presence many times before you were committed."
"I guess it needed close proximity to sense Teal'C's larval Goa'uld," said Daniel, Major Carter and Dr Frasier continued to look skeptical. "Look, I've had a lot of time in that little white room to think about this…it makes sense. Why am I suddenly back to normal? And coincidentally, hours after touching me, Teal'C is sick."
"All right, but Daniel, we ran every test imaginable," said Dr Frasier, "Cat scan, MRI, x-ray, full bloodwork, there is nothing foreign in Teal'C's body."
"That only means that Machello did a very good job of hiding the device," said Harry in return. "If I was to invent something like this, I would not make it easy for the Goa'uld or anyone else to find. Since it could be extracted and studied, and the Goa'uld could devise a defence against it."
"Daniel, the dead bodies have only been there for a month," said Major Carter. "Machello has been dead for six months, how could he be responsible?"
"What if he planted those killing devices there six months ago or a year ago," said Daniel. "And the Linvus walk into their meeting…"
"Like a landmine," said O'Neill with comprehension.
"Yes!" said Daniel. Major Carter frowned for a moment and walked off to a nearby computer terminal. "Mines from World War I are still going off today, even though the soldiers that planted them are long since dead."
"After Machello died we crated off everything in his laboratory and had it sent to Area 51 for study," announced Major Cater. "Let's check in the database for anything that's familiar." The computer produced a slideshow of every piece of technology taken from Machello and soon enough Daniel pointed to a picture of a Goa'uld information tablet and its accompanying page turning device (PTD).
"There, that's it, I used a tablet and PTD in the Linvus chamber," said Daniel, the next pictured show a display of twenty PTDs.
"Why so many of 'em?" asked O'Neill.
"Could be your landmines," stated Harry.
A few hours later and a priority delivery later from Area 51, found Dr Frasier, Major Carter and Harry within the hermetically sealed lab on level 24, while O'Neill and Daniel watched from the observation room. A single PTD and tablet had been delivered from the Groom Lake Facility, and was now encased within a sealed examination pod, which had exterior ports and attached to which were gloves for persons arms to stick into and manipulate whatever was inside. The PTD itself was a rather innocuous looking turquoise and shaped almost like a computer mouse.
Dr Frasier stuck her arms into the pod and threaded her fingers into the gloves while Major Carter did the same, Harry stood enigmatically to the side and gazed into the pod, watching them work.
"OK, now how does one set this thing off?" asked Dr Frasier rhetorically; she took a pair of forceps and tapped it on the PTD.
"It would need a stimulus that would indicate that it was being used by a Goa'uld," said Harry.
"Well, in that case, when you use it to turn the page, since mostly only a Goa'uld would read Goa'uld," said Samantha logically. She picked up the device with the forceps and passed it over the tablet slowly. A low long hissing was heard as the PTD did its work and just as suddenly a shower of neon blue slug like devices fell out of the PTD. Harry assumed that these were Goa'uld killing devices; and watched as they squirmed about on the tablet.
"I'm counting ten devices in total," said Dr Frasier. "So ten per PTD."
"That accounts for the nine Linvus Goa'uld and the one that went into me," said Daniel over the microphone.
"Get your hands out of the gloves!" shouted Harry, recognizing why the devices were slightly distorted. He pushed both women on either side of him away from the pod, but it was no use, their hands were stuck in the gloves. Samantha was about to ask why Harry had reacted in such a way, but saw why when the killing devices squirmed onto her gloves and went straight through it. Both women tried their best to get away but by the time their hands were out they could already see the devices squirming under their skin.
The AI in Harry's chromesuit had detected the danger, and not a moment later the suit grew to encompass his neck and the back of his head…there was a slight flash of materialization over his face and a curved visor had appeared to finish the seal. But Harry knew that it was but a useless gesture from the AI.
"The damn things are out of phase!" exclaimed Harry; as he saw three of the devices squirm over the legs of his chromesuit…the things barely needed a moment to phase through his suit and he briefly felt them enter his body before all sense of them vanished. He released a helpless sigh and looked at the other two flabbergasted women as alarms started to wail throughout the room and the base at large. He willed the AI of his chromesuit to return it to normal configuration and began to wonder just what it would feel like to be schizophrenic.
"Now what?"
888888888888888888888888
It soon became apparent though that neither Harry nor Major Carter would have to find out; both felt a sharp pain in their ears and not a moment later they felt a something trying to force its out of them. Harry saw the three killing devices that had entered him fall to the floor, powerless, and now in phase with the rest of reality. But they had left behind a message, the voice of an old man spoke in his ears…I have delivered you from your Goa'uld captor, enjoy your freedom.
"Daniel?" said Samantha, staring the observation window, "I could have sworn I heard…"
"Machello?"
"Yeah," said Samantha, "it told me it had freed me from my Goa'uld captor. But I don't have a Goa'uld in me."
"We were both host to a Tok'ra, Major," stated Harry, looking with pity at the severely agitated and delusional Dr Frasier; who was mumbling to herself incoherently and at one point even started to undress her blue air force blouse…complaining about a heat that wasn't even there…though she did keep her bra on in the end.
"You may be right," said Samantha. "Janet said that when a Goa'uld dies and dissolves into the host it leaves a unique protein marker."
"That is a fact," said Harry, "but an incomplete one, it also occurs when a voluntary separation happens. The protein marker itself is actually the equivalent of an identification tag. Tok'ra mark their hosts so a record can be kept of who had hosted whom."
"So are you suggesting that the devices left because of the protein marker?" asked Daniel.
"Yes," said Major Carter. "Can we take some of my blood and inject it into Dr Frasier?" she asked of Dr Warner, who had entered the observation booth as there was no way they could risk breaking the seals of the lab.
"No, your blood type doesn't match, Major," said Dr Warner.
"My blood would be sufficient, I have the O positive type," volunteered Harry.
"That could work, for Dr Frasier only," said Dr Warner. "Teal'C has negative type blood, it wouldn't be compatible."
"Curing Dr Frasier would be sufficient to set her to work on the problem," stated Harry calmly and walked to a table and rested his arm on it…his chromesuit retreated all the way up his arm so he had no more sleeve on it, baring it and stared at Major Carter expectantly. She nervously completed the procedure of drawing blood out of a major vein in his arm and into a plastic vial.
As they didn't know how much of the protein would be required for the devices to leave Dr Frasier they filled a four cc syringe with Harry's blood and injected her. The results were near instantaneous and Harry could only marvel at the ingenuity behind these devices…he would have to request access to them in the future…they left the Doctor within seconds of the blood being introduced.
After that it was a simple matter for Dr Frasier to get around the blood type discrepancy problem. As separating the unique protein marker would take weeks (weeks that Teal'C didn't have), she came up with the idea of separating the red blood cells and plasma (the parts that make blood incompatible) from the blood and giving Teal'C the rest. What was unknown though, was how smart Machello had made the killing devices…as Teal'C would possess the marker but still have a Goa'uld.
But like clockwork, a few seconds after the protein had been introduced…Teal'C started to convulse for a few moments and then stilled, opened his eyes and muttered 'Machello'. The slug like device squirmed out of his ear as if confused as to what it should be doing…but before it could do anything else a medical vacuum promptly sucked it out.
88888888888888888888888888
Seaworld…two weeks later…
"Certainly is a beautiful planet this," said Dr Jackson, as he and Harry walked calmly on the large tropical island that housed the Stargate. "I can see why you suggested it."
"Well, it was this," said Harry with a grin, "or General Hammond was going to throw you off the base and deny you access until you had vacation. You should not have gone to Orban so soon after your…ordeal…with Machello's killing devices."
"It was an opportunity that couldn't be missed," said Daniel with a sheepish shrug.
Seeing as this was a vacation, Dr Jackson had come dressed appropriately in a loose shirt and three quarter pants and sandals with a bag strapped over his shoulder carrying enough clothes for at least a week. Harry on the other hand was not on vacation and was only escorting Daniel to his lodgings.
Said lodgings was to Daniel's mind something straight out of Getaway magazine…just ahead was a wooden dock that led out onto a boardwalk, half a meter over the impossibly clear blue lagoon between this main island and another one over eight hundred meters away (the island was clearly part of an extremely large atoll)… which led to a grouping of stilted cottages, numbering about five in total. The round cottages had thatched roofs and looked to be made of bamboo walls…but Daniel had yet to see a bamboo tree on the island.
Harry saw Daniel shake his head in confusion as they moved along the boardwalk.
"When I was ten I saw a place like this in a magazine at the school library, an island near Indonesia I think it was," commented Harry, "ever since then I wanted something like it to be able to just escape to when I needed a break."
"It's beautiful," said Daniel, the rolling sound of the ocean and distant waves and the fresh smell of the air pervading his senses and relaxing him. "It's not actually made out of wood and bamboo?"
"The smell and feel of it is as close to wood as I could manufacture," said Harry with a grin, breathing deeply and feeling the tranquil nature of Seaworld overcome him, "but structurally it's composed of strong artificial materials that can conceivably withstand any storm. Don't worry," he added, seeing Daniel's look of worry, "this is not the season for it."
Daniel's attention was drawn to movement at the doorway of the nearest cottage. Standing framed in the doorway was a tall woman; her skin was noticeably browned in the sun and curly black hair reached down to her shoulders; her face had both an elegance and a strength to it, high cheekbones but an angled face. She wore leather-like brown skin tight pants that reached to her knees and gave a clear idea of her curved hips while a very brief brown leather top completed the outfit, but left most of her abdomen bare and rather daringly left the valley between her ample breasts visible as well. Her feet sounded against the boardwalk as she closed the distance between them.
Harry had a huge smile on his face though and they embraced each other rather unusually; he cupped his right hand against the left side of her face while his left had grasped her waist, she on the other hand had mirrored his position.
A few moments passed, but before Daniel could begin to feel uncomfortable with what he assumed was a display of affection between Harry and his girlfriend and or wife, they broke the embrace.
"Dr Jackson, I'd like you to meet my companion," said Harry with a smile, "Apollonia. Apollonia, meet Daniel Jackson, he is the one whom I spoke to you about."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Dr Jackson," said Apollonia, bowing her head slightly.
"Likewise," said Daniel, bowing in return.
"She will make sure you don't run into any difficulties throughout your stay here," stated Harry astutely. "Now…if you will excuse me, I must return to Earth."
888888888888888888
Earth, a few hours later…
The subspace path shut down and Harry walked down the ramp to be greeted by two antsy looking members of SG-1. Though they were antsy for wholly different reasons.
Colonel O'Neill was waiting for Harry to give him an example of the new 'toy' that Harry had agreed to supply to the SGC, in exchange for allowing access to all of Machello's inventions and encoded research notes (he hoped to use an Asgard computer back on Seaworld to try to crack the encryption).
Whilst Major Carter was waiting for two five-inch diameter spheres of elemental Naquadah to properly test out her newly developed Naquadah Reactor.
"So how's Daniel settling in?" asked O'Neill casually.
"He was fine last I checked," said Harry with a grin. "The diving on Seaworld is literally and figuratively otherworldly. And my wife will make sure he doesn't get himself killed. The stratka are quite deadly if provoked."
"Stratka?" asked Sam worriedly.
"Yes, oh, they're about the size of a killer whale, but have the teeth of a shark," said Harry casually. "Anyway, since I can see you're both anxious to get the goodies I've brought," he held up an Asgard jewel device, "let's get going."
The three walked out of the embarkation room and their first stop was the Armory and indoor firing range on level twenty. There was no one practicing on the range at the moment, so it allowed Harry to explain the 'toy' he brought for O'Neill and the SGC without interruptions or curious onlookers.
Harry walked over to a large empty table; a place usually reserved for the cleaning and stripping of weapons, and stroked the jewel device in a circular pattern…a column of white light appeared and materialized a large rectangular silvery case on the floor. Harry waved his hand over the case and its lid parted on its own. O'Neill looked down into it and whistled in appreciation.
"Colonel, Major," said Harry with a grin. "This is a weapon I developed initially for my own use, but when I heard of Ra's death I knew it would not be long until Earth drew the attention of the Goa'uld, and as such I began making them in larger numbers to give to the nations of Earth if it ever came down to an invasion."
Harry hefted the weapon slightly smaller than an M-16; it had a matt black finish and looked much more deadly than a M-16 could ever hope to be. It had three prongs arranged in a menacing looking triangular formation in the front, the muzzle pointing out in the center, other than that it looked pretty much like a rifle; butt, trigger, grip and so forth. He pulled out a strange looking bulbous device that glowed slightly, but did not explain it's function but it became apparent when he slid it along the front of the weapon and it easily hooked into place between the upper and left prongs of the weapon, the ammunition clip.
"This is a hybrid weapon," explained Harry, "it combines the best aspects of energy and projectile based weaponry. It fires a temporarily existing projectile that contains high energy plasma at three thousand feet per second at a rate of six hundred shots per minute, effective range of three hundred meters, but deadly accurate up to one hundred. The projectile itself is actually no more than a tiny hyper accelerated containment field for the plasma, which is released upon contact with the target. Each clip of ammunition contains enough plasma for forty shots."
"Cool," said Carter with a grin. "But how about reloading the empty clips with plasma?"
"I will show you an injection interface that could be designed for the base's nuclear reactor," Harry showed them a button to press just above the trigger and the weapon charged up with a high-pitched hum. Without warning and before they could even don earmuffs Harry shouldered the weapon, took aim and let loose with a burst of fire from the weapon. O'Neill was about to chide Harry for not waiting but stopped himself. The weapon had emitted no more sound than a MP-5 with a silencer. The effects on the paper target a hundred meters down the range was also enough to silence him in astonishment.
Harry thumbed the button to bring the paper target towards them. There were four perfectly placed five-inch holes in the paper, over the heart, head, groin and weapon of the 'enemy' pictured on the target. He handed the weapon with a grin to O'Neill…who aptly looked like a kid in a candy store.
"This first case of PR-7s are meant for the use of SG-1 exclusively," said Harry.
"PR-7s?" asked O'Neill, testing the weight of the weapon in his arms.
"Yes, short for Plasma Rifle…and it was my seventh design…this one…that finally worked," said Harry with a rue grin. "You should be made aware of the security features on this weapon. It can be customized to the biometrics of its owner."
"You're joking," said Carter with eagerness.
"Hardly, Major Carter," retorted Harry. When O'Neill looked clueless to the significance of this Carter as usual had to explain.
"Sir, the weapon can be made so that only you can fire it."
"Cool," said O'Neill, aiming the weapon down the range.
"If anyone unauthorized tries to use or open the weapon," said Harry with a glint in his eyes, "make sure you aren't within ten meters."
"Why?" asked O'Neill casually.
"The containment field within the ammunition clip is released and an explosion equivalent to a high yield fragmentary grenade occurs."
"Cool," said O'Neill again, and took his first shots with the PR-7. Blue energy released from the front of the weapon lit up the interior of the range eerily. The plasma bolts shifted to blue in the visual spectrum once outside of the weapon and made it appear as if O'Neill was firing blue tracer rounds.
"I've had these weapons customized to myself and the rest of your team Colonel, do not allow anyone else to handle them, unless you wish to send eulogies," said Harry seriously.
"Understood," said O'Neill, loosing his easygoing persona for a moment.
Harry and the Major now headed for her lab on level twenty five where the prototype naquadah reactor was mounted on her lab table; the reactor itself was composed of three interconnected foot long spheres, with an outer shell of polished steel lined with lead to contain radiation. He brought out his jewel device again and a square silvery box appeared. Harry again waved his hand over it, willing the device to open. The dark obsidian spheres of naquadah were revealed…polished perfectly smooth.
"I still can't believe I didn't think of shaping the naquadah into a sphere," muttered the Major self derisively.
"In my experience, it often happens that when you are too close to a problem, you can't see the obvious solution," stated Harry, and using the jewel device as a ruse to hide his use of Ancient power, he hovered the sphere out of the box and guided it carefully into the first cradle inside the reactor and did the same with the second. Major Carter took over and sealed the reactor spheres. She then consulted her laptop, which was connected to the central control sphere of the reactor and made a few adjustments.
"Ok," she said nervously, her finger hovering over the 'enter' button, which would initialize the reactor. "Here we go…" she tapped the button and the reactor lit up and began humming contentedly. "Yes!" she pumped her fist in triumph.
"What is the power curve?" asked Harry interestedly. He had been fascinated when the Orban allowed the technology exchange of the reactor less than two weeks ago. There was obviously much more powerful sources of energy that he knew of but the Orbanian naquadah reactors were the most compact and efficient design he had yet encountered.
"Double my previous calculations, it should provide a stable flow of about three point two terawatts per minute and short duration bursts of fifteen terawatts per minute, but that would significantly hasten the decay of the naquadah," reported the Major.
"Indeed," said Harry. "Well, I hope you guys find a planet with a suitable deposit of naquadah soon, because you're going to need a lot of it."
"True," muttered the Major with a sigh. "We hope to soon find such a planet from the Ancient map of Stargates Colonel O'Neill put into the computer. Oh, and by the way, we're sending a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) tomorrow to scout a new world the computer churned out from working on the old Goa'uld map of Stargates…General Hammond wondered if you would like to accompany us to it, since Daniel is taking the week off."
Harry seemed to consider it for a moment, "Should be fun!"
88888888888888888888888888
It was a densely forested world. The thicket was rough and made movement for the now three member SG-1 quite difficult. However, their 'observer' as Harry was being officially called on the books for this mission seemed to have no trouble whatsoever picking a path through the thicket that didn't have him so much as breaking a sweat. (Harry was subtly influencing the bushes in his way with telekinesis to part in front of him.) Initially, O'Neill had offered some green fatigues for Harry's use on the mission and an 'Earth' patch with the 'At' (which was the corresponding verbal sound used by Harry's Ancient ancestors to indicate Earth) point of origin symbol on it. Harry had merely smirked in amusement and a moment later his chromesuit changed color to mimic the green worn by SG-1 and the 'At' Stargate symbol appeared a moment later on his left shoulder.
O'Neill, Major Carter and Harry had decided to give the PR-7s their first tryouts in the field, whilst Teal'C had opted to come with only a Zatnickatel,…since all indications from the UAV showed no Goa'uld activity around the Stargate. This was somewhat contrary to what happened next as the UAV was shot down by what it's sensors reported as a Staff weapon before all telemetry was lost.
And this was the mission of SG-1 at the moment, find the downed UAV and determine what or who shot it down.
"How much further?" asked O'Neill.
"Getting close," said Carter, staring down into her rather crude detector, which was apparently capable of sensing any EM or radiation within a radius of only a hundred meters. They passed a grouping of trees and Teal'C was the first to spot the downed UAV.
"Over here," he called. The gray UAV was in rather bad shape. Its frame was bent from the crash and the weapon blast had sheared the entire left wing off. Teal'C and O'Neill remained at a few meters away as an obvious precaution at this being a trap. However, the moment Carter touched the downed shell of the UAV…Harry felt energy flare up all around them in a cocoon that extended in six meters in every direction from the UAV; he shifted his vision into the Ultraviolet and saw immediately that they were encased in a shield trap of Goa'uld design with a few unique modifications.
Harry calmly turned around from his position next to the Major and walked up to the perimeter of the shield, "I'm afraid we've rather neatly fallen into a trap."
"What?" asked Carter, confused. Harry touched the shield and the three others watched in alarm as the shield cocoon flared red into the visible spectrum. "How…" she began to ask how he had known but stopped herself, knowing Harry would only dissemble.
"Well, let's see what these new babies can do then," said O'Neill, hefting his PR7 and pointing it into the air. "Heads up!" he warned. O'Neill fired a four shot burst and the blue plasma pulses streaked into the shield, but was stopped cold, despite a brief wobble in the shield itself.
"With enough sustained fire you could breach the shield, Colonel," Harry glanced around at the once again invisible shield, "but we have nowhere near enough ammunition between us to achieve it."
"Do not bother!" came an oddly distorted voice. It was revealed to be a large muscular human walking into view from behind a thick tree. He wore a gray silver body suit with rugged boots, and wore armor around his shoulders and a combat harness and belt that held multiple tools and weapons, while a large empty holster was tied around his left leg that was for a large modified Transphase Eradication Rod (TDR) that was at this moment pointed at the team. What seemed to be obscuring his voice and hiding his face was a sloped sensor mask that was a favored tool among the Ashrak (Goa'uld assassins who personally carry out the orders of the System Lords) but it was clear to Harry's senses that this man was no Goa'uld. It was clear that this was a mercenary in the employ of the Goa'uld.
"Your weapons will not penetrate the shield in time," said the merc. "However, mine will."
A blue beam shot out of the lower end of his TDR and went through the shield and vaporized a small portion of a petrified trunk that stood next to Teal'C. To the Jaffa's credit he did not so much as flinch from the event. O'Neill had come to a crouch next to a tree stump and asked the obvious question.
"Who are you?"
"Aris Boch," said the merc, "perhaps you've heard of me?"
"Not me," said O'Neill, with a frown. "Teal'C?"
"I have not," said the Jaffa, who kept his Zat aimed at Aris Boch despite the shield, waiting for any opportunity to strike, no matter how unlikely it would come.
"Harry?"
"It's a very big Galaxy," he shrugged nonchalantly.
"That's disappointing," said Aris with a mocking brokenhearted tone, "I'm one of the Galaxy's greatest hunters!"
"It doesn't ring a bell," said O'Neill, "sorry." He was anything but.
"Well, I've heard of you," said Aris, he faced the Major, "Captain Samantha Carter," he faced Teal'C, "the Jaffa traitor, Teal'C," he turned to Harry, "Ambassador Harry, representative of the Tau'ri for the Asgard," he finally faced O'Neill. "And Colonel Jack O'Neill."
"Well, fancy that," said O'Neill with sarcasm, "we're famous."
Aris Boch pulled on a pump action lever on his weapon and stated ominously, "now, drop your weapons."
"And if we don't?" asked O'Neill.
"Do we have to get diplomatic?" sighed Aris.
"Why not?" said O'Neill and that was all warning he gave before he flung his combat knife with lethal precision towards Aris. It would have been a really impressive kill, had it worked. The shield flared into existence and caught the knife easily, stopping it a few feet from Aris' chest. Aris chuckled mockingly.
"You were thinking of the Personal Defense Shield the Goa'uld use," he said in his distorted voice that was really starting to irritate Harry, "the one which allows slower moving objects to pass through. Wouldn't make a very effective trap, now would it?"
"Can't blame a girl for trying," stated O'Neill with a rue smirk.
"Are you kidding?" said Boch, "That's exactly what I expect from you. Now drop your weapons orrr I'll kill someone."
O'Neill frowned and eventually nodded towards the rest of his team and Harry. They reluctantly dropped their weapons, while Harry did the same. Once again, Harry was faced with a conundrum, it would be child's play to take Boch unawares with a simple use of telekinesis or any of his powers, but to do so would open a can of worms among the Tau'ri that he did not believe they were ready for. So he decided to play along and only use Ancient powers as a last resort to prevent death or effect escape as it seemed Boch was here to capture them…but there was no way he could have known about their arrival until he spotted the UAV…hence Boch must be here for something else.
"I'm sure you're all thinking of escaping, but you should know that I've disabled the dialing device of the Stargate, and even if you manage to overpower me, which is unlikely, you'll never get off this planet," he further explained, the shield flared red again and fell with a slight chirping sound. "This way."
8888888888888
Boch led them to a large clearing in the forest a few hundred meters away from where the shield trap had lain.
"Everyone stop where you are," he said abruptly. Harry and the rest of SG-1 stopped and turned to face the hunter. "Drop your gear." SG-1 reluctantly complied. "Inside."
"Inside where?" asked O'Neill.
"Inside there, bo roke da!" he spoke the latter in Goa'uld. Harry felt an energy flare behind him and he watched as a doorway emerged out of nowhere…obviously some form of cloaking technology. O'Neill yelped in surprise and regarded the door with amazement. They were escorted into what seemed to be an older model Goa'uld cargo transport. The golden interior gleamed with hieroglyphs and four escape pod tubes were easily visible.
Boch moved to the door that headed into the rear compartment and once he was sure no one could see, typed in a five symbol combination and the doorway parted. The door sealed shut behind SG-1 and Harry with an impassive Boch still pointing his TDR at them. The sound of the outer hatch opening and closing told them that the hunter had left.
"Sir, he's not Goa'uld," reported Carter.
"And, but, so, therefore?" asked O'Neill.
"There have been rare instances when a conquered civilization's members may have impressed the Goa'uld enough for them to be spared in exchange for providing a service to the Goa'uld while they hold some form of ultimate leverage over the indentured," explained Harry. "Boch may be one such as this."
"That's all well and fascinating," said O'Neill, "but why don't we use the time to find a way out of this. Teal'C, how fast does one these things fly?"
"I believe it's capable of traveling twice the speed of light."
"Home in time for dinner," said O'Neill with sarcastic grin.
"Twice the speed of light is still a snail's pace in interstellar terms Colonel," said Harry with an enigmatic grin. "It would take ten years at that speed to get to Earth."
Conversation was sparse from that point on as O'Neill decided to take the time to examine every nook and cranny in the cargo compartment for a conceivable advantage to use against Boch. Teal'C had propped himself on a cargo container and stilled himself so much that it looked like he was a statue. Harry and Major Carter were arguing however on a finer point of physics relating to the naquadah generator.
"How would naquadah as a liquid make any further appreciable adjustments to the power curve? The energy needed to make it a liquid and keep it as such is just not efficient…"
"That's because…" said Harry with growing frustration, but was interrupted when he heard the outer hatch opening and closing. Teal'C leapt to the side of the door, intending to ambush Boch from the blind spot in the room, but as usual Boch was two steps ahead and had stood at an angle to the door as it opened and discovered Teal'C easily.
"Back with the others," said Boch, gesturing with his TDR menacingly, as his other hand was occupied carrying a small case of some sort. Teal'C complied as Boch sat down on a cargo container with a visible wince; clearly he was injured. He removed the sensor mask and finally revealed his strongly featured face with piercing, intelligent eyes analyzing every move in the room.
"Captain Carter I assume you have some medical field training?" asked Boch, opening the case next to him and revealing it to be an advanced medical kit.
"Actually it's Major now," said Carter, obviously not wanting herself to be referred to as a Captain the whole time.
"Oh, how very important," said Boch mockingly, "I'll inform the galaxy. Now, Major, can you get over here and treat my wound."
O'Neill nodded with a resigned look at Carter and she got up and walked towards Boch, who pointed at the various healing solutions to use in conjunction with the bandages. It was really too bad that Boch had not chosen Harry for the job; it would have allowed him to subtly spell an unconsciousness matrix into the mercenary.
"Ahh!" winced Boch as the Major probed the wound on his shoulder; which revealed Boch to have an extremely unusual physiology, he had yellow blood. She began pulling apart the bandage and applying the ointments to it.
"So!" said O'Neill, jumping off the container he had been sitting on, walking forward. "Who shot you?"
"Don't come any closer," warned Boch leveling his TDR at the colonel.
"Just making conversation," said O'Neill nonchalantly, backing slightly off.
"Well, capturing you lot was unintentional," said Boch, "the real reason I'm here is to catch a Goa'uld."
"You hunt Goa'uld?"
"I hunt anyone of value," corrected Boch.
"Which Goa'uld are you hunting?" asked Harry with a frown.
"His name is Keltar," replied the hunter. Harry did not know of Keltar, but then, if it was a minor Goa'uld in service to a System Lord then most likely no one would have heard of him. A System Lord did not want to play second fiddle in any of his endeavours.
"I have not heard of him," said Teal'C.
"Have you met every Goa'uld?" asked Boch mockingly. "I haven't. But the only thing I know is that Sokar has discovered that Keltar is plotting against him."
"So you work for Sokar?" asked O'Neill.
"No," said Boch.
"Self employed then, independent contracter, rogue warrior?"
"I give to the Goa'uld, and they give back to me what I want in return," he stated simply.
"How do you keep from getting killed?" asked the Major from behind him.
"Takes talent," he said simply.
"So…what exactly are we worth?" asked O'Neill.
"Well…" said Boch, considering the subject with apparent deep thought. "Teal'C is worth the most, the System Lords would love to make a good example of him. Carter and the Ambassador have the memories of the Tok'ra Jolinar and Jamilla respectively, not to mention that the Goa'uld could no doubt learn a lot about the Asgard from him as well," explained Boch. "And you O'Neill, you're considered…well, you're a pain in the mikta."
"Neck?" asked O'Neill of Teal'C.
"No," said Teal'C shortly; Harry had to suppress his mouth to keep from smirking.
"But what can we offer of value for our freedom?" asked Harry, seeing the way out of the situation without a fight.
"Done," announced the Major before Boch could respond.
"Good, back with the others," ordered the hunter, and turned to face Harry. "Well, there is something you all can do."
"Let's hear it," said O'Neill looking resigned.
"Well, you help me capture a Goa'uld, I let you go," said Boch simply.
"He's worth that much?"
"Yes, though the Ambassador here comes a close second, but lucky for you Sokar doesn't take betrayal lightly."
"Indeed, but why would you accept our help anyway?" asked Harry with a suspicious frown.
"I take any help when I can get it," shrugged Boch modestly. "You see this injury is going to take time to heal and I don't have much of it. Sokar can figure out everything I can figure out, and if I want to trade Keltar to Sokar, I have to get there first."
"And how can we be sure of our trust in you? That you won't double cross us the moment you have Keltar in your hands?" asked Harry.
"My word is good on over two thousand planets," he said seriously.
"There are billions," said O'Neill in which he probably considered a serious argument.
"It would appear we have no choice," said Teal'C neutrally.
"Yes," said Boch mockingly. "Choiceless. Guys! Come on! What's the big deal? It's a Goa'uld," he said in a tone as if that should explain everything. You hate Goa'uld, I hate Goa'uld…everyone hates Goa'uld!"
O'Neill sighed deeply and stared at his shoes contemplating the choice, "Ok, fine…we'll do it."
"Good!" said Boch, standing. "You and you come with me," he pointed to Harry and O'Neill, "the rest of you…stay."
"Oh, now wait a minute…" said O'Neill beginning to object.
"Ah-uh," said Boch with amusement dancing in his eyes and shaking his head.
"Choiceless?"
"See, that's why I like you," said Boch, "you're quick. Let's go." Boch led the way out of the ship and sealed it behind them…vanishing from view, leaving Teal'C and Carter behind.
888888888888888
O'Neill was ordered by Boch to lead the way through the dense forest, with Harry following…allowing the hunter to keep both under a watchful eye and under the aim of his TDR. At one point though, the hunter stopped and with a meaningful glance lowered his weapon and holstered it only saying, "You trust me, I trust you." Before he pulled out what looked like a water canteen and a small tube of a blue substance.
Harry's eyes widened as he recognized the substance, he had seen its use and effects when he was blended with Jamilla. It was called the Rashna and it was used only a few times in Goa'uld history as a weapon of enslavement for races who were particularly difficult to conquer for some or other reason. Couple that with his unusual physiology and the memory came forth to Harry.
"You're a Furian," said Harry, who couldn't keep the slight amazement out of his voice.
"I knew it wouldn't take you long, Ambassador," smirked Boch. "Yes, I'm a Furian, guilty as charged."
"And the significance of that is…?" said O'Neill expectantly.
"The Furian's are the only race in this galaxy, at least that the Goa'uld know of, that are naturally resistant to the implantation of a symbiote…they can't be used as hosts."
"Cool," said O'Neill, looking at Boch with a hint of respect for the first time.
"Oh yeah," said Boch mockingly. "It's so cool, the Goa'uld only nearly wiped out my race because of it. They kept the youngest as slaves and killed the rest."
"Not that this little bit of historical revelation isn't worth something," said O'Neill, "but what did you have in mind for the capture of this Goa'uld?"
"Well, you two are going to surrender to him," said Boch simply.
"That's a bad plan," said O'Neill.
"This Goa'uld will not be in mood to take prisoners," opinioned Harry. "Not when you have him cornered like this."
"That's your problem," returned the hunter in an unconcerned fashion. They resumed walking in the direction for what they assumed was the Goa'uld.
"You know," said O'Neill, "if you really were the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy, you'd capture that Goa'uld yourself and turn us all in."
"And miss the chance of watching the great Jack O'Neill in action," said Boch with a grin. "You want to know how I became the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy?"
"More than life itself."
"I'm the greatest because I'm alive, that's it. I'm not greedy. If I can capture a Goa'uld with all kinds of fancy toys without risking my neck, that's a damn good compromise."
"Fancy toys?" asked O'Neill.
"All you gotta do is get close enough to shoot him with a Zat'nickatel."
"OK," said O'Neill stopping and facing Boch, while Harry stood to the side. "Found a flaw in your plan."
"What's that?"
"Well, we're exactly one Zat gun short from actually having a Zat gun."
"Zat…gun?" asked Boch in amusement.
"Drop the 'nickatel'," explained O'Neill.
"I suppose it does save a bit of effort," said Boch, nodding in agreement. He reached behind him into his belt and produced a Zat gun and chucked it at O'Neill. The Colonel was rather astonished as he thumbed the priming button and the Zatgun uncoiled into a 'ready-to-fire' position.
"You're giving me a working Zatgun?" asked O'Neill in astonishment.
"Well if it didn't work, it wouldn't do you any good," said Boch. "I'm trusting you."
It was the last thing he said as O'Neill shot a blast of blue coiling energy that hit Boch in the chest and sent him collapsing to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"I take it you have a plan, Colonel?" asked Harry archly.
"We'll fly the ship to the closest planet with another Stargate and gate home."
"Good plan," admitted Harry, who inwardly remonstrated himself for not having thought of it. O'Neill walked past the prone hunter unconcernedly, but Harry stopped to removed that nasty looking TDR from its holster. It was at this point that Harry sensed emotion coming from Boch, amusement…he wasn't really unconscious, he was faking the fall.
Harry narrowed his eyes in anger and with a wave of his hand a red unconsciousness matrix shot out of his right hand and swirled into Boch. Harry carefully probed the Furian's mind and fired another matrix just, to be safe.
Harry ran to catch up with the Colonel.
"O'Neill, I will meet you at the clearing, I must get our weapons."
"Hey…wait…" O'Neill couldn't say anything further because Harry had ran into the thicket, disappearing from view. Twenty minutes later and O'Neill was trying to remember what the damn password was to get into the cloaked ship. All he had gotten for his effort was coming up with a few new colorful cool sounding words that with his luck a Goa'uld would understanding as a swearword.
"Having fun, Colonel."
O'Neill jumped in surprise as Harry's voice came from behind him. He turned to find a smirking Harry carrying all three PR7s and Teal'C's Zatgun.
"Hey, how did you get so sneaky?"
"Talent," was all Harry said, handing the Colonel his weapon.
"Where's Boch's weapon?"
"It's like your PR7, only Boch can fire it, so I dropped it a few meters away from him under a bush," explained Harry.
"Oh," said O'Neill. "Anyway, what was that word…?
"Bo rok da," said Harry in fluent Goa'uld. The door to the cargo ship appeared out of thin air and opened. O'Neill and Harry grabbed the team's gear and ran inside. "Don't touch anything, Colonel."
"Why?"
"Because Boch was immune to the Zat blast, he faked it," said Harry, putting down the combat vests and looking around scanning with his enhanced sight. O'Neill stared at Harry in confusion.
"Why would he do that?"
"Probably to prove a point that even if we could get one up on him that we would still be stuck on this planet, but I saw it and knocked him out."
"Oh, so you're saying that this ship is probably booby trapped or something."
"Exactly," said Harry, staring around. He walked towards the center steering console and opened the engine initialization cowling; it was missing an ignition crystal. "Clever. There should be a third crystal here, he must still have it, stay here Colonel, and as I said…"
"Don't touch anything."
Harry walked out of the ship and this time he was gone for over two hours. O'Neill had in the meantime made conversation with the still trapped Teal'C and Carter to pass the time. It astonished O'Neill though when he saw that Harry was not alone. He was supporting a badly wounded dark skinned man, who wore elegant teal brown clothes that had clearly seen better days.
"Sorry we're late," said Harry. "O'Neill, meet Bora, this is the supposed Goa'uld we were supposed to help Boch capture."
"Then I take it, Boch was lying about the whole Keltar thing," said O'Neill dryly, as Harry helped the man to lean against the bulkhead.
"Yes, Bora here is a Tok'ra, not a Goa'uld," stated Harry confidently.
"You sure?"
"I worked occasionally with him when I myself was a Tok'ra," said Harry, giving a friendly smile to Bora.
"It's an honor to finally meet the people of the Tau'ri," said Bora tiredly, bowing his head slightly, but winced in pain.
"Rest easy, my friend," said Harry and he reached into Major Carter's combat vest and pulled out the healing device she always kept with her. The device warbled into life and orange healing energies flowed into the Tok'ra; who let a gasp of relief after it finished.
"OK, so did you manage to get that crystal doohickey?" asked O'Neill.
"Yes," nodded Harry holding up the kite shaped ignition crystal, "it took a while for me to open Boch's utility harness, as it was booby trapped as well. I also found an information tablet containing the order from Sokar for Bora's capture. I then went off and managed to coax him out of his little cave stronghold, luckily he recognized me before shooting me with that hand device."
"I am truly fortunate that you and the Tau'ri arrived Harry," said Bora with a grin, standing up rather stiffly. "There is no way one such as you could be thwarted by Boch. You have saved the lives of many Tok'ra operatives in Sokar's ranks. The High Council will hear of this."
Harry bowed, as was custom for such a compliment from a Tok'ra. He walked over to the center cowling and replaced the ignition crystal; Bora had told him of this new failsafe that Sokar had put into his ships; if you removed the delmak (control crystal) and any of the ships systems were accessed it caused the ship to shut down and a delayed self-destruct to start counting down. Bora walked over to the control pad and pushed the five key combination and the door parted.
Introductions were made all around and soon Bora was seated in the pilots chair and guiding the cargo ship out of the atmosphere and a few moments later the ship set a course for the nearest gate world and jumped into hyperspace.
"So, Harry," said Major Carter, "you said you got the control crystal from Boch's utility harness, did you leave him the DHD crystals he took as well?"
Harry grinned and amusement danced in his eyes, "yes, I did leave them for him, right at the Stargate…" he trailed off and "…surrounded by a grouping of automatic remote weapons, kindly provided by Bora."
"But if he has his TDR…" said Carter.
"He'll get it eventually," confirmed Harry. "But I pity him when Sokar finds out he has failed."