Hargrove stood his ground as the massive ship burned its way into the launch bay, less than a day later. Only a light layer of dust was kicked up by its engines, but Blake stepped back from it all the same. It probably massed several thousand tons, but if Hargrove had his eyes closed, he probably would have thought it was the size of a car.
As the alkesh maneuvered into place above the platform, it swayed ever-so-slightly before touching down. Obviously, the Colonel had taken the extra time to practice handling its controls. Once again, Hargrove noted just how effective the inertial dampeners must be. By now,any craft that big on Earth would have deafened anyone standing this close to it.
He waited patiently for the hatch to open, and people to begin filing out. The whole trip had taken about two days, but from what he could see, none of them looked any worse for wear.
Hargrove gave a nod to Sa'valain as he also departed the ship. The Kolasti had been along on the first trip to rescue him from the weapons plant, and had gotten the basics of flying the ship from Carter. The young man was a quick study, and had all the makings of a great pilot. Hargrove had tasked him with going along to Earth, as well, hoping he’d get more experience. The Colonel wouldn't always be available, after all, and the same could be said for their Tok'ra benefactor. Hargrove mentally shook his head. He would have preferred sending Pierson, as he had experience flying a lot of different equipment on Earth, but he was undercover offworld right now.
Blake apparently lost all patience with their slow pace and headed up to the ship. A few of his tech trainees followed suit to check things out. Haley finally appeared in the entryway, looking exhausted, but spared a moment to embrace her husband. The Colonel sidestepped past them on his way out. He looked happy with the results of his mission.
Hargrove saluted. "Welcome back, sir. I take it everything went well?"
"Thank you, Major, it did." The Colonel responded in kind. "And I hear congratulations are in order. You bagged the Great Green Hunter, or so I'm told."
"Yes, sir. It was… surprisingly easy, actually. Suna handled herself like a pro, and Pol stepped up as well."
He fell into step as the Colonel headed up towards his office. "Is it true the thing was invisible? That's the story I heard, anyway."
"Yes it was." Hargrove nodded. "I didn't see that coming, but it only required a slight alteration of our plans."
"Any chance of retrieving the corpse? We could really use that invisibility machine, even if Pol's the only one who ends up being able to work it."
"I already looked into that, actually. 353 has a DHD, and apparently it should still work despite being in a vacuum. Unfortunately, it looks like we can't cobble together a space-suit from what we've got here in the mountain. I already put in a request to the Deuca for something that'll do the trick, but Archie said it might take a few days. He's on Cartago right now, treating an outbreak of something… that I can’t pronounce."
"Alone?"
Hargrove shook his head. "He took one of his assistants along, and Desousa for security." Despite the friendly nature of the Byrsa people who lived on Cartago, it had become common practice among the Survivors to never send anyone offworld by themselves.
"In addition, sir, I'd like to send some people back to Kouna. That unas definitely didn't come through the 'gate, which means it had a ship nearby, probably cloaked. It's a long shot, but if we can find it…"
The Colonel smiled slightly. "I agree. SRs 3 and 4 should be available. Oh, and has there been any news from Zau?"
"The digger teams reported that their 'gate has been relocated successfully. Ahardt ran a full test on the 'gate, and it seems to be working fine. They all got back here about four hours ago, and as far as I know they weren't noticed by any of the Zau."
"Good. What about our intel on the control terminal?"
Hargrove grimaced. "That's not so good, actually. The Tok'ra have nothing, or nothing they're willing to share with us, anyway. A few of the wiretap transmissions we've been able to decode so far refer to Earth being 'Caged', which I guess is their way of mentioning the barriers. Still no direct reference to the terminal, though. Pierson's lead on Helios turned out to be a dead end, but I ordered him to maintain cover for now. There’s some local unrest there, and we might be able to take advantage of it."
The Colonel nodded understandingly. Helios, or P1J-287, had slightly lower gravity than they were used to, and was home to about thirty thousand farmers living in a large river delta around the 'gate. The planet was actually controlled by a Goa'uld named Cronus, one of Apophis' rivals. Since they'd yet to find any intel about the control terminal at all, they'd both agreed it was time to widen the search to include other Goa'uld.
Despite 287's importance in feeding his Jaffa army, it seemed that Cronus had very little security around the 'gate. Probably because it was so deep in his territory, Hargrove had speculated.
As they reached the laboratory levels his radio crackled, and he pulled it out. "Hargrove here."
"Sir, we've just completed the daily buffer check on the SV, and a message has been routed to your private terminal."
Hargrove acknowledged, and the Colonel looked at him, puzzled. "That sounds important."
"I agree, sir. If you don't mind a detour, we should probably check it out."
The Colonel gestured towards Hargrove's office instead, and a few minutes later they were looking at his Goa'uld computer screen. Haley's decryption program ran it through a few filters, and then unfamiliar text sprang up on the spherical screen.
Hargrove squinted at the Goa'uld text. It took him a few seconds to get the gist of it, and then he felt his jaw drop fractionally.
"What is it?" The Colonel leaned in. He couldn't read it, of course, but he knew something was up.
Silently cursing himself, Hargrove scrolled the message down slowly. He hadn’t meant to show his surprise like that. "It's from Pierson," he said slowly. "Apparently, the discontent on 287 is much greater than he thought." He looked up at the Colonel. "I'll have to go over the message more slowly to get everything."
"I didn't know a somaradio could send a data burst."
"It can't." Hargrove said distractedly. "This is just a computer extrapolation of what he said. It'll take me some time to decode this, but if I'm reading this right…" He started on another section of the text, his mind racing. He sat back and looked up at the Colonel. "We may be talking revolution, here, sir."
"All right." The Colonel straightened up. "Decode the rest of the message and brief me in half an hour. I need to grab a shower."
Hargrove barely noticed him leaving. He checked and re-checked the message. It appeared to be authentic. Licking his lips in excitement, he began brainstorming. He hadn't expected this so soon, but he could still make it work. If his plans had any chance at all, though, everything would have to be planned down to the smallest detail.
-.-
The river deltas on P1J-287 were within sight of the 'gate as they arrived. Tony, Nelson, Hargrove, Avery and one of Archie's Healer buddies stepped onto the ramp, and immediately began breathing in some thick fog. Off in the distance, under the misty mid-morning sky, Tony could also see the faint outlines of a pyramid beyond the river, and could hear the damp sand crunch under his boots. He imagined that under a clear sky, he could easily mistake this place for ancient Egypt.
From the message Hargrove had received, they knew where the local Jaffa garrisons were, and how to avoid them, so they didn't have to waste any time heading down towards the town at the center of the farmland. Pierson's instructions had included a time and place to be, and Tony didn't want to miss this opportunity to free another planet from Goa'uld control.
They were dressed in local garb, or at least a close approximation of it, but they still generated a few curious glances from the Helians as they moved. At a warning glance from Hargrove, Tony tried to walk more like an overworked farm slave and less like the proud soldier he'd been most of his life. It was harder than Hargrove made it look.
They saw a few Jaffa on patrol during their trek, and imitated the locals in bowing and hurrying away from them. Tony could tell that he wasn't the only one unused to seeing Jaffa who didn't have Sokar's pentagram or Apophis' snake symbol on their heads. Still, it seemed that no matter where Jaffa came from, they seemed to have similar training. The patrollers didn't even look at them twice.
Thankfully, they reached the 'safe house' just ahead of schedule and without incident. Tony breathed a sigh of relief as they stepped inside, and lowered his hood to look around. Aside from his team, no one was present yet. The building looked reasonably defensible, despite being made of mud and straw. It had good sightlines to the street, and had easy access to an alley behind the structure. Tony could see why Pierson had chosen this place.
"Someone's coming." Desousa called from the other side of the room, before the door opened and admitted a hooded figure.
As one, Tony and his people raised guns at him.
Pierson lowered his hood and raised his hands with a smirk. "Relax. I'm unarmed." He looked down at the zat on his belt. "Well, mostly."
He submitted to a scan by the Healer, and only lowered his hands after the Deuca nodded to Tony.
"It's good to see you, Pierson." Hargrove said, just about as close to being sentimental as he ever got when Suna wasn't around.
"Thank you, sir."
"What’s with all this mist, anyway?" Nelson queried. "It hasn’t let up since we got here."
Pierson shook his head. "And it won’t, not for a while, anyway. It’s a seasonal thing. At this time of year, the Helians all pretty much expect it."
Tony peeked out the window again. "Any idea when we can expect these 'rebels' of yours, Lieutenant?"
"Not for a few hours at least, sir." Pierson looked a little ashamed. "I know it's not what you were expecting, but these people are pretty skittish about going up against Jaffa. They're being careful, just like we would in their shoes. Last I heard, one of the rebels' leaders was held up at the temple, but should be here sometime this afternoon. Maybe tomorrow, if he gets held up again."
Despite his irritation at the delay, Tony knew that these things just took some time. He sat on one of the simple chairs to the side of the room and beckoned Pierson over. The slender young man sat next to him, looking a little chagrined. The others stayed near the door or windows, in case anything unexpected should happen.
Tony leaned over. "From what Hargrove tells me, you've been on this planet barely a week."
"That's right, sir."
"And you found your way past the pyramid’s defenses, checked their database, and still had time to get out and organize a rebellion, all in just a week?"
Pierson flushed a little. "As you saw, sir, security on this planet isn't that high. They didn't have the pyramid locked up tight like on some of your previous missions. And I didn't organize anything; these folks were pretty riled before I showed up. They just needed a little persuading to get things going."
Tony raised an eyebrow. "Like you did with Bokal?"
Pierson's eyes darted towards Hargrove. It was just for a split second, but there all the same. He took a deep breath and lowered his voice. "I've never made any secret of my conversations with Bokal, sir. If you think I've done something-"
"Relax, Lieutenant." Tony sat back. "I'm not accusing you of anything. You understand, though, that things are moving a little too fast here, right? I'm not complaining, but I don't entirely trust it, either."
"No, sir."
It was clear Tony wasn't going to get anything more out of him, not with his guard up. He dismissed the young man, and sat there thinking about it for a while. Pierson gave every impression of an eager, impressionable youth with a lot to prove. Tony hadn't forgotten Stokes' warnings about him, though. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but his words still rang true: the kind of person who'd probably be in jail if the CIA hadn't scooped him up, first.
He would just have to wait and see.
-.-
Bokal wound his way through the still-unfamiliar passageways of the Hovak mountain complex. They all looked the same. He closed his eyes for a moment to get his bearings, and opened them in time to nod at a passing Survivor. Despite the minimal training he’d received, and the help he’d provided on Tchosal, he still didn’t feel quite like one of them.
Perhaps it was because they’d all been raised on such primitive planets, or their rather disturbing comfort level when it came to violence and bloodshed. He’d been practicing with their PL90s, and had to admit a certain feeling of… power at watching the human-shaped targets come apart under fire.
Even the memory of that feeling brought on a vestigial sense of shame. He knew that violence would be necessary; the Goa’uld and Jaffa were beyond negotiation. Still, a lifetime full of peaceful intentions and nonviolent dogma was not an easy thing to just ignore, no matter how many times he reminded himself what he might have to do.
As he passed the Matthews’ main lab, he heard a faint but shrill whine through the door. Curious, Bokal entered the combination on the controls and the door slid open.
He immediately regretted it. The ‘faint’ shrill exploded out, battering away at his senses and washing away his thoughts. He clapped his hands to his ears, but it made little difference.
Thankfully, Blake immediately noticed the door, and shut off the noise from his console. Both he and his wife were wearing makeshift protective gear over their ears.
"Sorry about that," Blake apologized as he stepped closer, "I probably should have locked the door."
Bokal rubbed at his ears, trying to clear the ringing noise. "What are you doing in here?"
"We’re testing a device that Seraus was working on about a year ago." Haley explained. She pointed at yet another spherical Goa’uld device on a table on the other end of the room. "Hargrove asked us to see if we could get it working, or possibly find other uses for it in the field."
Bokal looked at it with interest. Like most Goa’uld spheres, it had a depression on one side, pointed towards the rest of the room, but this one was larger than most, and had an almost identical dip on the back. "What is it?"
"We think it’s the Goa’uld version of an LRAD." Blake pulled up a diagram on one of the monitors. "That’s a kind of non-lethal sonic weapon used for riot control back on Earth. This thing is more powerful, though. It’s capable of reaching a lot of the ultrasonic and infrasonic ranges, in addition to what we can hear."
"Why would any Goa’uld build a non-lethal weapon? Aside from the zatnik’tels, I mean."
"Oh, it can be lethal, believe me." Blake elaborated. "We’ve discovered that if you pick a frequency outside of normal hearing range, you can broadcast the sound over a wide area and debilitate a large number of people at once, and none of them would even know what’s happening! If it works on Jaffa, this could be very useful to Tony and the others."
Bokal was impressed and, as usual, a little dismayed at the inventiveness of this weapon. Haley seemed to notice, because she was quick to add, "There are other uses, too. Right now, we’re trying to configure this for communications, and possibly spying uses as well."
Bokal nodded. "Well, be careful. Argyros is offworld, and I don’t think his assistants are up to repairing your eardrums if you end up rupturing them."
Blake looked a little concerned, as if that thought hadn’t occurred to him, but Haley nodded understandingly.
"Is it true that Suna’s in command while Tony and the others are away?" She asked, surprising him with the sudden change of topic.
He nodded in turn. "I just came from the Colonel’s office, and she is pacing up and down the hallway outside of it. She looked very apprehensive, from what I can tell. Almost as if she’s expecting something bad to happen." He shrugged. "I doubt she feels ready to run this place, even briefly, but most of the people here seem to work fine without any supervision at all."
Haley smiled. "I’ll pay her a visit in a while, but we need to get back to these tests while we can." Both of them put their headgear back on and Bokal promptly left the room, perhaps a little faster than politeness would dictate, before continuing his trek.
Jahu and a squad made up from various SR units were running drills just outside the treeline when he finally emerged from the mine shaft. They weren’t currently using their weapons, but Bokal gave them a wide berth anyway.
It was actually quite pleasant outside. Hovak’s seasons were longer than those back home, and for the most part, hotter. At its current orbit, though, the planet was well into its fall season.
Making his way into the clearing he’d set aside for his own use, Bokal tried again to think like someone from Earth.
"How do I use my technology to hurt someone?" He asked himself.
It seemed like such a ludicrous thought. His instinctive response was, Why would I want to hurt anyone?
He tried to focus. He’d used his phase-shifter to send that unas into a free-fall. Unfortunately, he had to touch something to put it out of phase and could only keep it out of phase for a few seconds, and therefore it wasn’t very useful as a weapon. Then it occurred to him. He was out of his element. Perhaps if I modified it to make us less permeable, it could be used as armor, instead!
He’d just managed to open the casing when he heard a faint sound coming from the mountainside. Based on the repetition, it had to be the alarm noise that Nelson had told him about when he’d first arrived.
Something was definitely happening. He hurriedly packed up his gear and headed back.
-.-
They had been waiting in the safe house for almost twenty hours, taking shifts to keep an eye on the streets. Tony was doing his best not to show just how stir-crazy he was getting. He found himself wishing that something, anything would happen, if only to break up the monotony.
Finally, he got his wish.
A frighteningly familiar sound washed over the valley, and the ground shook under an impact. And then it happened again, and again. Through the slanted window, Tony could see bursts of light falling on the city from above.
"Oh, no. Not again." Nelson whispered from next to him. The whole group was awake by now, staring openmouthed out the windows. Helians were screaming and running from building to building, as if that would somehow save them.
Suddenly, the blasts were briefly replaced by a tremendously loud voice, resounding from far above.
[Remnants of the Tau'ri! I am Apophis. Long have you hidden in the shadows, whispering poison in the ears of my loyal followers, but no longer. You will never return to your world, for these are your final moments. Like your friends on Hovak, you will die now, at the hands of your god!]
As a signature to the last words, another blast struck the city.
"Oh, God." Nelson whispered again.
"That son of a bitch!" Avery cursed. "How did he know we were here? How did he know about Hovak?"
"Maybe he had a local informant. Or another invisible spy." Hargrove suggested grimly.
"It doesn’t matter how he knows." Tony answered, tonelessly. "He knew the planet’s name. We have to assume the worst."
It was Bisalis, all over again. Suddenly he felt impossibly tired, but still knew what he had to do. "All right. We need to get to the ‘gate while we still can."
"Assuming it’s even still there!" Avery grated out. "Wouldn’t he hit the ‘gate first?"
Hargrove shook his head. "Not necessarily. This is Cronus’ planet, remember. He probably doesn’t know exactly where the ‘gate is, not with all this mist." He grunted. "This won’t be the same as Bisalis. Cronus is bound to get word of what’s happening here, and send ships to stop it. Apophis won’t have time to put boots on the ground, this time. He'll systematically level as much of the city as he can, trying to kill us. We have to go, right now."
They left the building and ran through the city as best they could, weaving around the panicked crowds. Pierson took the lead, as the one who knew the area best, and the rest kept an eye out and guns ready, in case any of the local Jaffa spotted them.
As he ran, Tony pulled out his somaradio and thumbed it on. "Hovak, this is Tony, respond! Can anyone hear me over there? Respond!"
There was no answer, but he kept trying all the way back. The bombardment continued for another five minutes or so, but the Goa’uld voice never spoke again. The pyramid took a few hits in the process, and they’d all heard stones cracking and falling from its side. Based on the direction the blasts had come from, Tony was fairly certain there’d been only one ship up there, bombarding the city. Apparently, Cronus’ own forces had scared it off or destroyed it, hopefully before too many people had died.
Hargrove reached the ‘gate first and dialed hastily, almost frantically. Despite the lack of response from Hovak, the connection was made.
The other ‘gate wasn’t locked down.
Nelson grabbed Hargrove as he tried to move through, and looked back.
Tony understood. Without a MALP, they couldn’t know what they were going into. A nuclear holocaust, a legion of Jaffa.
Setting his jaw, Tony stepped to the lead. "I’ll go through first. If I don’t radio you, dial one of the stopover planets instead."
Nelson opened his mouth to object, but didn’t get the chance. Hargrove growled, "I’m not waiting that long," shook himself free of Nelson, and ducked through the ‘gate.
A stunned silence fell on the rest of them, punctuated by more distant blasts from behind them. It only took a few moments, but after what seemed like hours, Nelson’s radio crackled.
"It’s… safe."
-.-
A billowing cloud of dust engulfed them on arrival. Tony covered his mouth and nose, squinting to see through the grit. "Nelson, Pierson, stay by the ‘gate." He ordered as quietly as he could. "The rest of you are with me."
The northeastern mine entrance should have been within sight, so he headed that way first. He only got a few steps before running into rubble. It seemed the whole passageway was buried. "There’s a small hill just north of the gate. It might be tall enough for us to get a better look." He sped off towards the hill, and Avery and the Healer followed, mutely.
As they slowly made their way out of the dust cloud, Tony could make out Hargrove standing unnaturally stiffly at the top of the hill. He was staring in the direction of the mountain, his eyes watering and the muscles in the corner of his jaw quivering. Holding his breath, Tony followed his gaze.
A gaping hole had been hollowed out of the side of the mountain, and more dust was billowing out of the mine entrances below. Scorched and blackened rocks surrounded the gap, and bits of metal could be seen sticking out of the rubble. It could only have been the base’s self-destruct.
"God in Heaven…" Tony pulled out his radio again. "This is Tony. Can anyone hear me? Repeat, can anyone read me?" He glanced at the Healer. "Are you getting any lifesigns in there?"
The Healer looked up from his scanner and slowly shook his head.
"The self-destruct would have wiped out the base computer, the database, the Soma Voco…" Avery said grimly. "It would have collapsed all the lower tunnels. The hangar bay, too. They’re all… dead."
Tony shook his head vehemently. "No! I won’t accept that! This happened hours ago, at least. Some of them might have gotten out and made it to the ‘gate! Or maybe to the abandoned Hovakian settlement. They could have hidden there."
The Pyrta and Desousa might still be on Cartago, and there were others out there, on assignments on other planets. Tony instructed Nelson to dial the stopover planets and try to make contact with anyone who might have made it out, while the rest spread out in a cursory search of the area.
Hargrove didn’t move when spoken to, and Tony didn’t have the heart to force the issue. If Suna had ordered the self-destruct, she most certainly would have stayed behind, to make sure it went off.
He felt as if he too, had been hollowed out and left with a gaping hole inside. Focusing on the search was all he could do, and he was afraid that if he stopped, he’d crumple up and die. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death… he prayed, or perhaps pled, as he moved.
The training grounds, riverbed and settlement were all abandoned. No RDF signals. No transmissions from the Soma Voco. No lifesigns. No… hope.
Then he got a radio signal from Nelson. "Boss, we got an incoming wormhole!"
Hope and fear both surged to life in him. "Be careful, Nelson. It could be Jaffa. Everyone else, get back to the gate right now."
