Stargate SG-1: Sacrifice Moon (3 page)

This might actually work, he thought, and felt something that had
been clenched like a fist inside of him - since he'd seen Charlie Kawalsky die - slowly relax.

It took time to build a team. Time, and trust, and respect.

He sipped coffee and was content to listen.

At fourteen hundred on the dot, Jack appeared at the top of the
stairs in the briefing room. He surveyed the room, turned to Sergeant
Siler, coming up the stairs behind him, and said, "Pay up." He wiggled his fingers for emphasis.

Siler looked over his shoulder, sighed, and took twenty dollars out
of his wallet. Jack snatched it away.

Captain Carter, sitting alone at the conference table, watched with
a frown buckling her forehead. "What was that?" she asked as he took
a chair next to her at the big mahogany conference table. The leather
sighed patiently under his weight.

"Well, Siler bet me that I'd be the first one here. I bet him that
you'd be the first one here."

"Why me?"

"Because Teal'c will follow me-"And there, right on cue, was
the heavy tread of Teal'c's steps on the treads, heading up. "And
somebody's going to have to install an alarm clock in Daniel's ass to
remind him of briefings, especially if he's reading, and I don't mean
anything fascinating, I'm talking cereal boxes, here."

He kept it light, but he couldn't honestly tell if Sam Carter was
one of those stick-up-her-butt officers who disapproved of gambling,
along with dancing and drinking and smiling in public. Good to get
it out in the open if she was. He could deal with it, but he wanted a
little warning.

She looked at him for a few seconds, then said, without a flicker of
her blank expression, "Twenty bucks says Daniel will be here in less
than two minutes."

"Oh, I don't want to take your money, Captain." He gave her an
evil smile. Hers was nearly a match.

"Well, I'd like to take yours. Two minutes." She tapped her
watch.

"Five, and that's only if we page him."

"Done." She opened the fancy leather binders set out on the table
and looked at the EYES ONLY red-striped folder inside. "P3X-595
sounds like a very interesting place, don't you think?"

"I hear it's nice this time of year."

"Actually, sir, from the axial tilt of the planet in relation to its star
it's probably - "

He held up a hand. "Captain Carter, tell me: am I going to care
about what you're about to say?"

She looked thrown, but only for a second. He was used to Daniel,
who just kept talking. Nice to know his second in command actually
listened. "Depends on how much you like hot weather, sir. It could
be as hot as Abydos. We'll know more when the MALP data is fully
analyzed."

Jack checked his watch. Forty-five seconds left on Carter's bet,
which would put him up forty dollars in five minutes. Not bad, for a
Monday.

Teal'c settled into a chair next to Carter, and he offered them a
restrained, dignified nod. Jack responded with an absent "Hey," since he was focused on the seconds counting down. He raised a cautionary finger. Carter was checking her own watch too, brow starting to
furrow in concern.

And then Jack heard a fast thump of boots on the stairs, and Daniel's disheveled head poked up over the railing. He had an arm full of
books. "Am I late?" he asked breathlessly.

Carter should not look that smug. Not if she knew what was good
for her. "Not at all, doctor."

Jack sent Daniel a mean, murderous look, which slid off without
effect, since Daniel was juggling a notepad, a coffee cup, and some
thick leather-bound books as he approached the table. "Daniel?"

"Jack?" He looked up over the tops of his glasses, blue eyes caffeine-bright.

"Why are you on time?"

Daniel held up his wrist. Strapped to it was a brand new Air Forceissue watch, complete with alarm features. "Captain Carter set the
reminder function... T'

Jack turned to look at Carter. Her hand was out. Fingers wiggling
significantly.

He sighed, dug Siler's twenty out of his pocket, and turned it over
just as the door at the end of the room opened and Major General
George Hammond stepped through. Big, balding, approaching retirement, he should have looked grandfatherly and missed it by a mile.
Something about the eyes, which were as sharp and assessing as any
drill sergeant's. Scuttlebutt in the halls said that Hammond's bullshit
detector was legendary, and Jack had personal cause to know it was
true. Hammond had certainly called his bluff the first time they'd met,
with a dead-eyed threat to blow the crap out of Daniel and everybody
left on Abydos.

If it had been a bluff. Truthfully, Jack couldn't quite tell.

He and Carter came to their feet until Hammond was seated. Daniel looked conflicted, as if he was wondering what the protocol was
for a civilian; Teal'c rose a second later and offered a respectful inclination of his head. Daniel, remaining seated, settled for a nod.

Hammond nodded back, confirming Daniel's choice, and then
swept the rest of SG-1 with a look. "Be seated, people. We've got
a lot of ground to cover." His gaze fell on the twenty-dollar bill in Carter's hand. "Offering me a tip, Captain?"

"No sir. Sorry Sir." She hastily stuffed it in a convenient BDU
pocket.

Jack hid a smile and settled back in his chair, folded his hands over
his unopened folder, and gave the General his best attentive expression.

"I trust everyone has reviewed the briefing materials."

Nods all around, except for Jack, who tried to keep the attentive
look while shooting Carter a significant glance.

"There were materials?" he murmured. Daniel silently slid a memo
down the table to him. "Oh. Those materials."

Hammond skewered him with a stare, decided not to press the
issue, and continued. "As you know, the MALP data on P3X-595
shows a very warm Earthlike atmosphere, much like what we found
on Abydos and Chulak, but with a higher humidity level. Dr. Jackson,
go ahead with your briefing."

"Of course." Daniel slid out of his seat and pressed a control to
dim the lights, then another to bring up a video still image. It was distorted and static-tattered, but clearly showed some kind of wide landing, with the steps leading down that seemed to be a design feature of
just about every Stargate. "As you can see, this is... um... I guess the
word would be unexpected..."

What made this one different were the people.

Lots of `em. Crowding around the MALP, looking curious. They
were wearing what looked like...

"Togas?" Jack said, eyebrows raised. "Wait, didn't we just do the
Rome thing back on Chulak?"

"I don't think each planet will necessarily have a different cultural
derivation, and actually, those aren't togas, Jack, they're tunics or chitons, probably of Greek origin... notice the draping of the - "

"Greek?" Jack interrupted.

Daniel, undaunted, took it up right where he'd been. "Notice the
draping of - "

"Daniel." Jack made it a flat two-syllable roadblock; Daniel's explanation crashed into silence. For a second, Jack was sorry, but only for a
second. "Okay, fine, great threads. So what are we looking at?"

Daniel took it for the olive branch it was. "Well... they're friendly. Or at least we don't see any weapons in evidence here. Also, look at
the range of people pictured. Young, old, even children. And I don't
see anyone who looks like a Jaffa, do you?"

"There are none present in this image," Teal'c said definitively.

"hi fact, there's nobody with any kind of marking to suggest that
this is a Goa'uld stronghold. No Jaffa, no - " Daniel tapped his forehead. "Tattooing, not even any jewelry depicting Egyptian symbols,
which seems to be pretty standard among the Goa'uld, so far as we've
seen to date."

"The other thing is that nobody seems alarmed at the presence of
the MALP," Carter pointed out. "They just look curious."

"Exactly, Captain - Doctor - which is a very interesting point,"
Daniel nodded enthusiastically. "We'd assume if the Goa'uld weren't
present that there would be nobody coming through their Stargate,
but it looks like a pretty busy place, judging from the number of people we're seeing from the video. Either the Stargate is in a high traffic
area, or..."

"What's our objective, General?" Jack asked. "They look like nice
folks, snappy dressers, but if there's no Goa'uld, what's the tactical
mission?"

"This is only your second scheduled mission through the Stargate,
Colonel," Hammond said. "I don't know what the tactical mission
might be. We're on a fact-finding brief at this point. Our mandate
from the President is to perform reconnaissance, assess any threats
that may exist, and make peaceful contact with these people. If the
Goa'uld aren't present on this world, it's possible these people might
have found a way to eliminate them, or at least deter them."

"And they're obviously operating at a pretty high cultural level,"
Daniel jumped in. "If what I see here is representative, it's a prosperous, living history of ancient Greek society. We can't possibly
not explore this place, regardless of what kind of technology exists
here. And we can offer them some kind of trade, build peaceful relations..."

Oh, great, Jack thought. Now it's some kind of U.N. mission. Those
always work so well. He turned to Teal'c. "This place look familiar
to you?"

Teal'c was studying the picture closely. "It is difficult to be certain. Apophis rules many worlds. This has some resemblance to one he
visited, though rarely."

"But there would have been Jaffa on duty at the Stargate, if Apophis ruled the planet, right?" Carter asked. Teal'c nodded. "Then this
might not be his world at all."

Daniel looked solemn. "But if it is his world, then maybe they have
some idea where Sha're and Skaara might have been taken. Jack, we
can't take the chance. We have to at least investigate the possibility."

Hammond folded his thick hands together and leaned forward,
elbows on the table. It occurred to Jack - late - that this was the first
time he'd seen the General out of his full dress kit. The short-sleeved
look suited him, made him look more hands-on, less consciously
intimidating.

Not less authoritative, though.

"Colonel?" Hammond asked, focused on him. Jack was starting to
get a feel for Hammond's command style, and it mostly added up to
choose the best people and trust the hell out of them. And probably
kick their collective asses when they screw up.

He could live with that.

Jack nodded. "Guess we're a go, sir."

"Go it is." Hammond shut his folder. "SG-1, see the Quartermaster
for your gear. Captain Carter, what's the next full daylight window on
this world?"

"The MALP's been there long enough to take some readings. By
our calculations, it's before dawn there now, sir. Any time before
twenty-one hundred should put us in for a daylight arrival."

"Let's make it a departure at seventeen hundred. I'll get the orders
drawn up." Hammond stood. Jack, Carter and Teal'c rose with him;
Daniel, already standing, settled for another cautious nod. "Dismissed, people."

Jack picked up the memo that Daniel had left on the table as Hammond closed the door of his ready room. "Oh, Daniel?"

Daniel was already gathering up books, coffee cup, pens, leather
binder, folder... he paused in the act of juggling. "Yes?"

"Funny thing, but this memo has my name on it."

"Well... yes... I was supposed to give it to you. Nobody knows
where your office is. Including me, by the way."

"Good. Let's keep it that way." Jack flicked the memo across the
table with a fingernail toward Carter, who fielded it and put it in her
own folder. "Captain, as my second in command, you're the keeper of
the paperwork. And, next time a little pre-mission briefing, okay?"

"Absolutely, Colonel."

Was that a smile? Nah.

Couldn't be.

Based on Hammond's seventeen-hundred departure time, they had
three hours to kill.

Jack chivvied his team into the Quartermaster's office, without
so much as a restroom break. Ultra-secret, high-tech, save-the-world
kind of stuff as this program might be, he knew damn good and well
that Quartermasters offices around the world ran at exactly the same
speed... slowly.

Four standard SG field packs, two MP5s, three Beretta sidearms,
and one staff weapon later, they'd wasted nearly two hours, between
the inventorying, packing, unpacking, repacking, and forms. There
were always forms. Even Daniel had been spooked by the amount of
paper being generated.

Which left them an hour. Carter, who'd taken on the role of Daniel's keeper, helped him set his alarm for departure time, which in
typical military fashion she specified as t-minus ten minutes. To be
early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late. Waiting was a sacred
meditation.

Jack had dispensed with that years ago. He showed up on the dot,
every time, but knowing Daniel, having a ten-minute window of
opportunity probably wasn't a bad idea. Still wouldn't keep him from
being late, but it would keep him from holding things up too much.

Funny, how well he seemed to know Daniel, considering they'd
spent all of a couple of days together, more than a year ago. But
they'd been highly concentrated days, full of the kind of stresses that
either tore people apart or forged them together for life. He could tell
that Carter felt disadvantaged by that, but she'd adjust; in this line of
work, they'd all get a chance to build those bonds. The trouble was, it
would probably come at one hell of a price. It usually did.

After a relaxing hour of target shooting in the base range, he cleaned his weapons and got everything ready, and strolled into the
Embarkation Room at exactly seventeen-hundred hours, to find the
team - even Daniel - already assembled.

"Sir," Carter said. She looked tense and a little flushed. Adrenaline
pumping.