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Take a Step Back…
by Bethany
“I don’t think it’d be all that wise for Jonas to be included on this little expedition, sir…” Jack O’Neill told Hammond.
“Why not?” Jonas was confused.
“Why can’t you come along…?” Jack paused. “I’ll let Daniel tell ya that…”
Daniel felt everyone’s eyes on him. He was used to be landed in this kind of scenario by Jack O’Neill. “… I guess Jack’s referring to these people’s last experience with a man named Jonas…” Daniel looked at Quinn, then at Sam. “Uh… Well, he was a nasty piece of work really.”
“What did he do exactly?” Jonas queried.
“He lead an entire race to believe that he was their Saviour.” Teal’c simply stated.
“Oh.” Jonas pieced together a picture.
“And, as you can imagine, he was not all that much a god for the good of man.” Daniel finished.
“Uh-hu…” Jonas realised.
“I’m not entirely sure I want Daniel or Jonas going to this planet, sir…” Dr. Frasier interjected. “They have both been subjected to enough radiation for one lifetime.”
“Noted, doctor…” Hammond nodded. “But won’t the shield that Dr. Jackson and the rest of SG1 helped these people to realise they could install,” Hammond looked at Major Carter, “won’t that still be around?”
“Yes, sir. The people of the planet did not mention any issues with the Shield, other than that it is working too well…” Sam Carter reiterated.
“And, that’s why they need our help. The Goa’uld seem to have heard that their old haunt is back in working order…” Jack said, to no one in particular.
“Get this straight, Daniel, any signs of a problem with the Shield, and I’m taking you home to the Infirmary…” Dr. Frasier told him sternly, just after they had stepped through the Gate.
“Seems like somebody pre-ordained that I’d consider that place a home away from home sooner or later…” Daniel tried to smile, and he half succeeded.
They shared a grin.
“So, what’s your problem?” Jack O’Neill asked an elder of the ex cave dwelling clan.
“The Goa’uld have sent several soldiers through what you call the Stargate…” The old man began.
“Where are they?” Teal’c said, his voice raised in alarm only slightly.
“Dead.” The man said. “Do not worry. We managed to defend ourselves…”
“But you are afraid other Jaffa will come back?” Sam Carter guessed.
“Yes.” The man told the assembled team. “And we sent your gift through the gateway, hoping that you would know we need you…”
“We’re here now, and we promise to do our best…” Daniel Jackson calmed the man’s growing anxiety.
“How often have they been coming through the Gate?” O’Neill needed to know.
“They are due back tomorrow evening…” The man informed him.
“And you only just called us…?” O’Neill was exasperated, as usual.
“They have been trying to set up some kind of pit…” The elderly citizen explained.
“A pit???” Dr. Frasier asked.
“You must mean a Mining Operation…!” Carter excitedly proclaimed. “Sir, I should scan for Naqadah or Naqadrriah!!!”
“Woahhh…” O’Neill put a steadying hand on her forearm.
“These Jaffa, where have they been digging this pit?” Daniel enquired of the old man.
“In the North of this area…” The man replied.
Carter was already scanning. “Yes! It’s here, sir… I can detect it, faintly, of course, on this equipment, but it is here..!”
“Shit!” O’Neill muttered.
“Why is that, sir?” Frasier asked reasonably.
“Because now they’re gonna be even more determined…” O’Neill frowned. “Right, now, people, listen up!” He said to his team, and to those citizens of this planet gathered around the small group. “Dr. Frasier, I want you to go back to these people’s homes with them, as planned, give them one of your scrutinising health checks, as planned… Daniel, you go with Carter, keep an eye on her while she’s falling over herself to get us some damn Naqadrriah… Teal’c, you and me, we’re setting up base, going to war with the Jaffa…”
“Again…” Teal’c stated.
“It’s been a long time since we had the chance to do this…” Daniel grinned reminiscently.
“We did this quite a lot, at one time, I seem to remember…” Sam smiled warmly.
They traipsed through the woodland together, the gorgeous orange glow of the sky lending everything a dream-like fairytale quality.
“There were those back home at the SGC who had a pool going on how many woodland planets the Gate would dial up… Davis was champion, I believe… He won the bet three months in a row once!” Daniel recalled.
“And he’s still living off the glory quite happily…!” Sam said kindly.
“How many hours now, Teal’c???” Jack was focused, but itchy.
“The Goa’uld are said to arrive at around 2100 hours every evening…” Teal’c reminded his friend.
“Just making doubly sure they’re wearing their sun screen, I know them too well…” Jack said tiredly.
“I sometimes wish it weren’t so as well, O’Neill…” Teal’c admitted.
That seemed to console the pair. They went back to waiting in ambush.
“Your son is well…” Frasier had a big, reassuring smile on her face, which broadened even more genuinely when she saw the young mother’s reaction, of kissing her baby’s brow. “The time before the Shield has done no lasting harm to you, and has not affected your baby. You were wise, and survived well in the caves… “Kalil is doing wonderfully…” She gently placed her palm on the, thankfully, placid little child. He barely took his eyes from those of his doting mother as Janet’s caressing hand touched his forehead.
“Oma DeSala said that two of her people visited this planet, y’know, according to Jonas…” Daniel said, as he helped Carter safely pack away their load. “He told me that, aeons ago, two of her kind, Kadmiel and Keenan, his son, they watched as the Goa’uld left this planet the first time around…”
“They just sat by and watched…?” Carter heaved another assignment of Naqadrriah, as gently as she could, onto one of the anti-grav sleds that Selmak, her father’s Tok’ra, had once left in the safe hands of the Tauri, on the quiet, of course. He knew that Sam would use it wisely, and that he’d probably just helped to make her dealing and hefting where the Naqadrriah was concerned, a hell of a lot easier on the back she regularly insisted on breaking in the name and pursuit of science…
“Keenan went to help these people, and set about the exodus of the Goa’uld, but one of the Jaffa in the war-party aimed his staff weapon at one of the Shields as he went, and Kadmiel, Keenan’s father, was forced to stop Keenan’s efforts to save it, because Kadmiel knew that to uncover themselves to the people of this planet in what looked like some kind of holy war, it would make these people dependent on Keenan and himself, just as they eventually became dependent on Jonas…” Daniel finished, then realised… “Uh, you do know which Jonas I meant, right?”
Sam looked at him… “I wish I could say I didn’t…”
Gun fire reigned the night supreme, in a blazing battle with almost a dozen Zat’nic’etels.
“I see them, O’Neill…” Teal’c yelled, as he dodged a blast from a zat that was way too close by for liking. Too close by to his head.
“Carter, you got Frasier with you, and Daniel????” O’Neill’s voice had become scratchy in an effort to raise the volume above the din that went on around him. He spoke into his radio.
“Yes, sir!” Carter said certainly
“You told the good people of this planet to bury their Gate when we’re good and gone???” He continued.
“Aye, sir…!” Major Carter confirmed. “And those other Shields are now in place, to protect them as well as we can from an Air Assault… Daniel and I planted them when we got to the Naqadrriah site. The Naqadah reactors weren’t exactly built for positioning near a Naqadrriah Mining Operation, but the area has now become this planet’s most vulnerable and valuable site. Protecting it should mean protecting its people.”
“Get your ass over here then, woman!” O’Neill commanded.
Sam’s party made a beeline for O’Neill.
“I suggest we make a move, O’Neill…” Teal’c called.
“Full steam toward the Gate, SG1!!!” Jack O’Neill screamed.
SG1 dove down the Gate. Jack stepped through last, and backward. “That charge got ‘em good and proper, General!” He called up triumphantly, as he spun around, at George Hammond.
“Glad to hear it, Colonel!” Hammond boomed happily.
The team saw Jonas Quinn exit the control room area.
“We were just lucky that the blast site had no Naqadrriah or Naqadah in that particular area…” Sam Carter stated.
“It was a risk we had to take, Major…” Jack assured her.
“And it wasn’t the only one we took today either…” Daniel added.
“I just hope the Goa’uld don’t get through those prototype shields…” Frasier worried, thinking back to the child, Kalil.
“And I hope they don’t throw their toys out the pram if they can’t get through… We’ve already seen them leave these people to extinction once.” Daniel fretted.
“A Naqadrriah site is too valuable an asset for even the most temperamental Goa’uld to destroy… I pray that we have done our best to buy the people of that planet precious time.” Teal’c added.
“And we will send some of our specialist teams to teach these people about the responsibilities that come with a planet rich with Naqadrriah…” Hammond said, from above.
“Its presence may even be of help to them in their progress…” Daniel Jackson brightened. “If they’re careful.”
“And careful about who they sell it to…” Sam Carter thought aloud.
“That’s where we come in, my friends…” O’Neill stated. “Cutting a fair deal, of course…” He said genuinely.
Jonas stepped forward from the doors into the Gateroom.
“Catch…!” Jack O’Neill commanded teasingly, and threw the deactivated remote control explosives device at his newest recruit.
Jonas caught it, and grinned from ear to ear as he went to greet his friends home…
THE END…