"Any time now, Haley!" Hargrove said, tersely. Cayo stepped up next to him, his Zau blade at the ready.
Suddenly, a voice called something out in Goa'uld from inside the bay. The unas looked up, startled, and then jumped back as a metal door slid shut in front of it, completely blocking the passage shut.
They found themselves in pitch blackness again for a few seconds, as Hargrove fumbled with his tac light and turned it on. "What just happened?" He demanded. He hadn't seen any indications of a door during their last trip through here; it must have been purposely concealed at construction.
Haley sagged in relief, and slumped down with her back to the tunnel wall. "That voice was a warning piped through the internal communications system." She explained tiredly. "It's like the SGC's automatic lockdown. The weapons plant is completely sealed now. There's no way in or out, at least for now. We're safe from that… thing."
Everyone gaped at her for a moment.
"How??" Was all Hargrove could say.
"Remember when I told you that the console wasn't tied into the computer's main systems? Well, I found an emergency program that would trigger the lockdown. I set a timer for it, and then we left. I'm sorry I ended up cutting it so close." She looked down.
"Hey, we're all ok. That's what matters." He responded, shaken. He moved the light over the door. "Are you sure that door will hold? You saw how strong the unas is."
"It doesn't matter. The lockdown process puts up a forcefield around the whole place. Even that hand device won't be powerful enough to get through it. Oh, and the field is designed to stop communications through it as well, so the unas can't call for help."
"As if it would." Cayo grunted.
She sounded certain, so Hargrove didn't pursue it. "Ok, assuming it knows what happened, it'll try to lift the lockdown. How would it do that?"
"According to what I read, the only way is by entering a command code at the console that triggered the lockdown, or at the control center for the whole place."
"Which is four kilometers away. So that's why you wanted that console wrecked. To make sure that Ugly out there would have to go as far as possible."
She nodded.
"It could move pretty fast, though." Cayo mused. "I doubt it would take long to get down there."
"Longer than you think." She smiled up at him. "Every door in the plant is closed and locked, now. He'll have to get through at least a dozen of them just to get down one level. It could take days to get all the way down there."
Hargrove gave a low whistle as he thought about it. "Isn't that a bit excessive? A lockdown that seals every door in the whole facility seems a bit like overkill, to me."
"Well, it was designed to trap intruders." She shrugged. "Also, the program was written by a Goa'uld. And probably by a guy, too."
Suna laughed out loud at that and Hargrove gave her a flat stare, mirrored by Cayo and Prem. He slid down a wall between Suna and Haley, and the others followed suit.
"Good timing back there, Prem. I think you broke his arm with that conveyor belt. And you made a very convincing 'distressed girlfriend', Suna." He added for fun, putting an arm around her.
"Is what I was?" She responded, mock offended, to a few chuckles.
They all sat in the darkness for a while, just breathing. Hargrove could feel palpable relief coming from everyone, and felt a little of it himself. He'd gotten out of sticky situations before, but he hadn't felt this kind of camaraderie since…
With a start, he realized that it hadn't been since his old team had been killed. He stood abruptly, partially to avoid thinking about that for now, and looked down over the ring platform. "What's stopping the Jaffa from coming down here?"
"That could take days, sir." Cayo responded, also standing up. "The Goa'uld, or unas, or whatever it is, left orders for them to guard the exits, and now has no way of changing those orders. Until one of his superiors arrives, I'd say we can wait down here safely."
"Speaking of days, how much air do we have down here? That door is probably airtight, and if not, the forcefield definitely is."
That brought Hargrove up short. Haley's question had merit, but he hadn't thought of it until she brought it up. He panned the light around the suddenly small-seeming tunnel. It was grim, but they deserved to know. "I'd say about a day's worth, with the five of us. More, if some of us can sleep." He kept his tone light. "I'm sure the Colonel will get here long before that. Speaking of which, I need to give him our sitrep." He pulled out his somaradio and turned it on, expecting the clicking noise he'd come to associate with them.
He couldn't hear anything.
"Uh, Haley?" He tried several more times. "This thing isn't working."
Slowly standing, she took it and opened up the casing to examine the inner workings. "Something's interfering with the signal." She looked around, and sighed. "It has to be the forcefield. An energy signature that powerful would probably overwhelm any kind of signal easily." She made an exasperated noise. "Damn! I should have seen something like this coming."
"Can you fix it?"
"If I was in the lab on Hovak, sure. A stronger shielding case would do the trick. But here, the only way would be to get far enough away from the forcefield." She looked at the rings. "Under the circumstances, I don't think that's a good idea."
Hargrove nodded. "Not while we still have air, at least."
"I don't suppose there's any chance the unas was bluffing, was he?" Prem put in. "About there being Jaffa guards outside, I mean."
"I doubt it. Maybe if he was facing another Goa'uld, he'd try something like that, but there's not much reason to lie to someone you don't see as a threat." He sighed. "No, it looks like we're here for the long haul. Get some sleep if you can. I'll take first watch."
-.-
Nelson ducked into the bridge, or pel'tak as Blake had translated it, to see General Carter on his back and mostly underneath the helm console. "Are we there yet?" He tried to keep his tone mild, despite his tone the last time they'd spoken. "The boss, I mean the Colonel, is getting antsy back there in the hold."
"Just about." Carter's muffled voice came back out. He slid out and sat up, after sealing the panel. "Just checking for any failsafe programming before we get started."
His tone was that of every-day business. The General seemed to be ok with him, after all, Nelson was relieved to see.
After he brushed himself off, Carter slid into the pilot's seat. He tapped several controls, and a purple-colored sphere extended out from the console itself. Without preamble, he put a hand on either side of it, and Nelson could feel a tremor run through the ship.
He hurriedly slid into the other seat. "Shouldn't there be like a seat belt or something?"
Carter smiled to himself. "Nah. These ships have inertial compensators. Look."
Within seconds, Nelson could see that they'd left the mountain's exit tunnel and were rapidly climbing into space. He let out a breath that he didn't remember holding.
Despite never having been part of the Air Force, he was no stranger to high-altitude travel and g-forces. This was something else entirely, though. He barely felt a tug, as they gained previously impossible speeds and left the atmosphere.
Well, impossible on Earth at least, he reminded himself.
Suddenly, there was a starscape all around them. Nelson gaped out the front and side windows, and then glanced at the General in amazement, who smiled in return.
"If you think that was something, check this out!" He moved his hands on the sphere, and ahead of them a kind of opening appeared in space, and they accelerated right into it.
Outside, the stars vanished, to be replaced by a mottled blue-and white tunnel effect. Nelson squinted, and thought he could see stars outside the tunnel, but they could have been anything, really.
"We… we're really moving faster than light right now? I barely felt a thing!"
Carter laughed briefly. "Yeah, it's really something, isn't it? I guess I missed my first jump to hyperspace. Well, sort of. When I blended with Selmak, I got all his memories about traveling faster than light. It made the experience a little less… overwhelming when I first saw it for myself." He stood. "Come on, I need to talk to the Colonel."
"Shouldn't you stay here?" Nelson worried aloud. "I mean, what with how fast we're moving, if we hit something…" He trailed off.
"There's nothing to hit, not in hyperspace. Besides, the autopilot can handle it, Ahardt. Flying in hyperspace is easy; it's the sublight maneuvering that can be tricky. Still, if you want to stay and enjoy the view, go right ahead."
Reluctantly, Nelson tore his gaze away from the window and followed Carter back below decks. As they walked through the familiar-looking corridors, Nelson summoned the courage to speak up. "Listen, about what I said back on Hovak-"
"Forget about it." Carter answered immediately. "You're under a lot of stress, all of you. Besides, you and Colonel Marcus both say what's on your mind, and that's not always a bad thing. Reminds me a little of Jack, actually."
Nelson didn't know what to say to that. "You miss them, don't you? SG-1, I mean."
Carter nodded. "Tok'ra can spend years on one mission, so we're pretty used to being out of contact for a long time. I guess I didn't realize just how much being cut off from my daughter would bother me."
"At least we know they're safe, if being stuck in time is safe."
"There is that."
Then Nelson remembered something he'd meant to ask before. "Before we took off, you said you were 'checking for failsafe programming.' What did you mean by that?"
Carter sighed. "It's a nasty surprise that got a few Tok'ra into trouble before we knew what to look for. In the past year or so, the System Lords have started leaving a kind of booby trap in their ships, in case of capture. If the engines are brought to full power without putting in a certain code, the failsafe program kicks in, takes control of the ship, and flies it straight to the Goa'uld who used to own it. Looks like whoever you snagged this ship from didn't do that here, though." He looked at Nelson seriously. "I didn't like the idea of delaying the rescue even more, but that's not the kind of thing we can fix on the fly."
Nelson nodded understandingly as he pressed the control to open the bay doors. Inside, over a dozen Survivors looked up at them as they entered. The rest were spread throughout the ship, along with Archie, and strangely enough, Bokal. The Tollan newcomer hadn't been trained, but Tony had allowed him to come along anyway, when he'd asked. Nelson might have had a problem with anyone else in the same circumstances, but not with a Tollan. From everything he knew about them, he doubted any of them had a deceitful bone in their bodies.
Tony approached them, and led them back into the hall. "I take it we're underway. What's our ETA?" He spoke softly, out of earshot of the others.
"Even pushing the engines past safety margins, it'll take almost two days to get there."
"Hargrove said they were down inside the plant, being chased!" Nelson put in, worried. "Can they last that long?"
Carter gave him a curious look. "You spoke to him?"
"We lost contact with them just after the Jaffa showed up and took the 'gate. No word, since." Tony cut him off before Nelson could respond. Nelson covered his surprise as best he could as Carter continued, warily.
"Well, I hope you have a plan for how to get them out of there."
"That depends on what this ship can do." It was something they needed to talk about, but Nelson got the impression that Tony was trying to subtly change the subject. "It's a lot smaller than the troop ship we saw on Bisalis, so I'd guess it's not meant as a transport."
"Not exactly." Carter tapped a screen built into the wall, and pulled up a wireframe image of the ship itself. It was angular, with wings tapering forward into the fuselage, but otherwise looked almost pyramidal. Nelson spotted the pel'tak easily; it was at the very front and top of the ship. "Alkesh are like fighter-bombers. They're fast, maneuverable, and durable, but can't hit as hard as some of the bigger ships. The System Lords use them for long-range tactical missions, even recon at times."
Tony studied the image closely. "Didn't I read somewhere that these ships have a stealth mode? That they could become invisible?"
"Some do, but that technology is hard to build and install. Most are older models, like this one. If there's an upside to all this, it's that this ship is in tip-top condition. Whoever you stole it from must have maintained it very carefully. This place is spotless."
"You should see the facility on Hovak. Almost all the labs were just as clean."
Nelson grinned. "Is there a Goa'uld version of OCD?"
Both of them gave him a wry look before Carter continued. "You should know, just before we left, I picked up a subspace transmission from the Tok'ra. It was about Bisalis."
All his levity forgotten, Nelson looked over at Tony briefly. "Did they scout the planet?"
"Yeah. Apparently, they're still mostly intact over there. After that first bombardment, and then the search of the city for you guys, it looks like the Goa'uld packed up and left."
Tony looked confused. "They're just gone? Why would they leave? I mean, without grinding the whole planet into a fine powder first."
Carter shook his head. "It's more common than you'd think. Remember there are millions of Isai on that planet. It would take a lot of effort to wipe them out, and Apophis probably didn't want to waste the time on them. He did take their Stargate, though."
As he thought about it Nelson realized it made sense, in a sick kind of way. Without a Stargate, they would probably never be a threat to the Goa'uld. The System Lords had targeted Earth's Stargate before, for that same reason. "At least they're alive."
The others nodded, and a slight tremor shook the deck under their feet.
Carter turned to leave. "I'd better get down to the engine room and keep an eye on things. At this speed, we may end up shaking off a few pieces of the ship before we get there."
Trying not to think about that possibility, Nelson waited until he'd gone before voicing his concerns. "Boss, he doesn't know about the SV, does he?"
"No, and we're going to keep it that way."
"But why? The Tok'ra may be able to help us understand it."
"I doubt it. The Goa'uld certainly couldn't figure it out." Tony sighed. "Don't let the General's cooperation with this mission fool you, Nelson; he'd still be happier if we weren't out here at all. Right now the Deuca and the SV are the only aces we have up our sleeves. If we lose either one, you can stick a fork in us, because we're done." The look in his eyes underscored the seriousness of his claims. "Even if the Tok'ra didn't still want to shut us down, they've had problems with spies in the past, and I can't risk the Goa'uld finding out about the SV."
He stopped in his tracks for a second, looking disturbed. "Wow, I sounded just like Hargrove there, didn't I?"
Nelson held his thumb and index finger close together. "Just a bit."
"Well, speaking of Hargrove, and most importantly, I promised him I'd limit knowledge about the SV. After what it did to him, or what it may have done, you know." He looked over. "I meant to ask. Why are you here, and not Desousa? When I asked one of you to stay behind, I expected it to be you, so that you could continue training Survivors. Did you lose a coin toss?"
"Actually, no." Nelson grimaced. "Desousa gets airsick, and really, really didn't want to find out what spacesick felt like. Besides, I wanted to see the launch firsthand. We both got our wish this way."
Tony started up towards the pel'tak, and Nelson kept pace with him. "Do you think Hargrove can hold out for two days, boss?"
Tony nodded. "He's as tough as they come, and he's got some pretty smart people backing him up. If anyone can keep them alive, he can."
-.-
Cayo felt a little light-headed as he turned on his tac light and stood up. He swayed a little as he stepped over to Hargrove and nudged him lightly, so as not to wake the others. It had been almost a day since he'd eaten, yet he still felt a little queasy.
Hargrove stirred, and sat up. From the looks of things, he wasn't doing any better. Cayo could make out bags under his eyes and a general look of nausea from him, as well.
"They won't get here in time, will they, sir?" He asked softly as he sat next to Hargrove.
"Probably not."
Cayo pondered that for a few seconds. He'd come to accept that he would probably die on some alien world, but he hadn't expected to die by running out of air. If his earlier whispered conversation with Haley was any indication, he might have to spend his last moments gasping like a grounded fish and turning various shades of blue.
Not exactly a dignified way to go.
If only Suna had chosen to stay behind, he thought. Then it would have been worth it.
He shook his head, and immediately regretted it as the cave seemed to spin. Suna was curious, and courageous in her own reckless way. Not even the Old Zau would have been able to stop her from coming along, not once she'd made up her mind. That was who she was, after all.
"We have to fight our way out, sir. It's our only chance now," he said softly. Despite their long conversations, and Hargrove's relationship with Suna, Cayo felt it wise to keep a level of formality between them. If Hargrove was right, and Cayo would eventually be leading the Survivors, he'd insist on the same level of formality with his underlings.
Strangely enough, ever since that first conversation in the hills above Nereus' palace, he'd actually put some thought into it. What decisions he'd make if he were in charge. What tactics he would use. Maybe Hargrove was onto something after all.
"At the earliest, the Colonel will be here in twenty hours." Hargrove responded softly. "I can't see any way to buy more time, though. I thought of drugging all but one of us to lower our breathing rates, but the medical pack the Deuca gave us doesn't have any of the right drugs for that."
"How can you know when he'll be here?" Cayo wondered aloud.
Hargrove looked away for a second. "Remember what I told him back when that unas first started chasing us? That we'd hold out until he came up with a plan B?"
Cayo nodded slowly.
"Well, that was code, in case our somaradios were somehow compromised. Back when we first took Hovak, the Colonel and I discussed the possibility of something like this happening. 'Plan B' is the phrase we set up for 'use the ship'. And, based on what Blake told me back when he was first going over the specs, even at top speed, they're still at least twenty hours away."
Cayo stared at him. "You know how far away they are, among the stars?"
"Before we took Hovak, I wouldn't have bothered. Once we got our hands on a ship, though…" He shrugged. "It seemed like a good precaution to take. All it took was a few calculations on that Goa'uld computer before we left."
Cayo thought about it in wonderment, remembering not to shake his head this time. Traversing the Stargates seemed amazing enough, but to actually be out there, among the stars… he could only imagine what that must be like.
Hargrove put his right hand to his left wrist, checking his own heartbeats. "I'd say we've got an hour before hypoxia starts setting in. If that happens, we'll be completely useless in a fight. Give me twenty minutes, and then make sure everyone is up and standing in the rings for transport. We'll fight our way to the 'gate and dial one of the stopover planets."
"The rings!" Haley exclaimed in a hushed, excited voice.
Both of them looked over at her as she rolled over on her makeshift sleeping pad and looked up at them excitedly.
"You're supposed to be asleep." Hargrove admonished quietly.
She moved a hand dismissively. "You're not the only one who's been trying to think their way out of this." She tried to get up, and slumped back down, putting her hand to the wall. "Help me up, would you? I have to get to the rings. Oh, and I'll need you to help me translate, Hargrove."
Cayo saw his own confusion mirrored in Hargrove's eyes as he moved to help her up. "What are you talking about?"
"I have an idea that could save all of our skins. It's a long shot, but it beats walking into that turkey-shoot upstairs."
-.-
In spite of a rudimentary lesson Tony had received on how to handle the ship’s controls, the trip seemed to last forever. When he wasn't monitoring engine temperature or making small adjustments from the pel'tak, the General was tirelessly familiarizing Tony's people with the inner workings of the ship. From time to time Selmak would surface, in order to explain something more complicated than the controls, but both of them seemed to be taking a personal responsibility for his people.
It only makes sense, Tony reflected eventually. He probably doesn't want to be responsible for any problems we face with this ship later on, so he's teaching us every last thing he can while he's on board.
Jahu and the other warriors got training with the ship's guns, while Blake and the Pyrta, and to a lesser extent Bokal, were given a much more thorough explanation of how everything worked. Tony had been relieved to see that Blake apparently understood a great deal of what he was told. Not only did it give him hope that they'd be able to operate the ship without Tok'ra help, but it kept Blake's mind occupied and off of Haley's situation.
Tony had been surprised when Bokal had volunteered to come along, at first, but had eventually allowed it because of the young man's insistent desire to prove himself. Bokal hadn't gone through any combat training as far as Tony knew, and had barely been on base for a week, but already had shown both respect and tact in dealing with… virtually every person he'd met. In addition, while Tollan engines were less advanced than the Goa'uld versions, Bokal had to have valuable experience with hyperspace travel: experience that could save lives down the road.
The Pyrta had been another story. He'd resisted the idea of going along right from the start, and in the end Tony had had to compel him, using the agreement they'd made with the Deuca. This was an official mission against the Goa'uld, after all, and the Pyrta's own agreement didn't give him any choice in the matter. He'd cowered in a corner during the launch, though, holding onto his own arms and legs with a white-knuckled terror Tony could remember from his early flights back on Earth. It was obvious his problems with the rescue mission were his own, and not on behalf of the Deuca.
Despite all that, the trip crawled by. Even though he'd brought his Bible, Tony was going stir-crazy by the time Carter called him on the intercom, saying they were almost there. He nodded at Ahardt, and they stowed their gear and ran up to the pel'tak.
When they arrived, Tony could see that they'd returned to normal space. The blue-white tunnel effect was gone, replaced by a normal starscape. It was hard to be sure, but he thought they were still moving forward. The tiny blue-green orb ahead of them seemed to be growing.
"Any idea what we can expect here?"
"We're still too far out for an accurate scan, but I'm getting energy readings from the fifth planet." Carter pressed a control and another wireframe diagram came up in front of the window. It showed a seven-planet solar system centered on a larger, slightly redder version of one of Hovak’s suns. As they approached, the diagram zoomed in on the fifth planet.
"Holy Hannah…" Carter breathed. On the wireframe, and then up ahead through the window, they could see ships in orbit over the planet. About a dozen smaller ships surrounded two massive pyramidal platforms in space, each with an armored framework extending out from its base.
"Are those…?" Ahardt trailed off, gaping.
"Yup, Goa'uld motherships." Carter looked at the data streaming over the HUD. "From their transmissions, they're Apophis' people. You must have really pissed him off."
Tony and Ahardt exchanged surprised looks. "If we did, it's news to me."
"Uh, is there a reason we're still heading straight at them?" Ahardt put in, as they continued to speed closer.
Up ahead, a pair of slowly growing dots distinguished themselves as gliders, as they slowed into an escort pattern around the alkesh. Tony looked out the window, nervously. They didn't look like they were about to attack, at least.
"We have to look like we belong, or we'll never get anywhere near the planet. Hang on." Carter raised a hand for quiet, as he pressed a control and said something in Goa'uld.
A muted voice responded in the same language, and he released the control, relaxing a little.
"Some kind of authorization code?" Tony hazarded.
Carter nodded. "Our information on Sokar was very limited, but Apophis is a little easier to deal with. We've been able to identify a few of his more recent security measures. I just used a phrase that identified us as a resupply ship. We can enter the atmosphere, but we'll have to watch what we do. From here on out, we can't make any unusual moves without tipping them off."
"You said this was a fighter-bomber." Tony worried aloud. "Will they buy us being a resupply ship?"
"Alkesh are used for all sorts of things. It shouldn't be a problem."
Sure enough, as they approached the planet, the ships in orbit continued to sit there lazily. Tony breathed a sigh of relief as their glider escorts pulled away and headed back up to the fleet.
Carter leveled them out, taking the ship into the atmosphere at a much gentler angle. The deck began to tremble underneath them, and through the windows they could see flickers of light that seemed to spark in the air all around the ship.
"Are those the shields?"
"We're moving a lot faster than we were back on Hovak." Carter explained. "The shields help to bleed off some of the heat from the friction. We'd be charcoal by now, without them."
"Comforting." Ahardt murmured.
They suddenly passed through the last cloud layer, and could see mountain ranges all around them. Carter moved his hands on the control sphere, and the Alkesh dipped below the peak of the nearest one. "I'm taking us into a fissure out of sight of the Jaffa at the Stargate, and the gliders in the air. We can hover inside it, and should have some time before the ships in orbit notice we're not where we should be. I'll keep an eye out, just in case."
"Come on." Tony pulled Ahardt away from the window. "SR-1 said they found a ring platform down there. We'll need to use the rings in the cargo bay to get down there." He hesitated, looking back for a second. "General, if you could stay at the controls?"
Carter nodded. "We may need to get moving in a hurry, I know. Radio if you need me to talk you through something."
The deck was still shuddering slightly when they reached the rings in the cargo bay. Blake and Bokal were looking at the monitor in the wall, running scans for the set of rings SR-1 had mentioned. The rest were standing with guns ready around the rings, waiting for the go-ahead to step inside them and transport down. The Pyrta was there, too, looking nauseous. He would stay on the ship unless they had wounded down there, Tony decided silently.
"This is strange." Blake muttered as they all felt the ship come to a stop. "I can see two sets of rings down there, like we expected, but one of them is giving off an anomalous signal." He pressed a button and the wireframe view zoomed in. Sure enough, the rings in the underground passage were repeatedly flashing on and off. "It's like it's not getting enough power to stay active all the time."
As they watched, the flashing stopped for almost five seconds, and then started again.
Tony thought something was familiar about it, but couldn't quite place it. "Can we get down there, or not?"
Blake looked at Bokal, who nodded. "If you time it for the five seconds, yeah. Otherwise…" He paused. "Actually, I'm not really sure what happens if one set of rings loses power mid-trip."
"All right. We won't stay undetected for long, so we'll have to be quick. I'll take SR-2 and 3 down in the first trip, as soon as it's stable enough to transport. Ahardt will take 4 and 5 with the next cycle." He got a series of acknowledgments, and crowded into the rings with eight others.
Blake began entering the combination to send them down, but Ahardt grabbed his arm. "Wait."
"What are you doing?" Blake protested, but Ahardt was focused on the screen.
Tony stepped over and looked at it, finally realizing what he'd missed before. "That's morse code!"
The flashing pattern was regular, and repeating, ending with the five second gap.
Of course, none of the strike team knew what they meant, but they waited as Tony and Ahardt pieced together the short message.
"Activate… but…"
"stay… clear." Ahardt finished for him.
"It must mean activate the rings, but not to stand inside them." Blake said after a moment.
"But are we sure that was our people?"
"Who else out here would know morse code?" Ahardt reasoned.
"Good point." Tony admitted. "Do it, Blake. Stand clear of the rings, everyone!"
The next time the message ended, the rings engaged, and suddenly Hargrove and the others were standing there. They looked dirty, tired, and a little bloodied, but definitely alive.
-.-
Blake made an inarticulate glad noise and scooped Haley up in a whirlwind hug, as hands were shaken and backs slapped all around. The pressure of fear and anxiety that had apparently built up on everyone's faces seemed to break like a wave on the shore. The Colonel stepped over to Hargrove and shook his hand. "Good to see you alive and well, Hargrove."
"Alive, at least." He responded tentatively. He took a few experimental breaths, and saw the others doing the same. He'd toured the ship once back on Hovak, but had apparently missed this room. The others looked around, also apparently impressed. "Nice ride. Thanks for the lift."
The Colonel quirked a smile at him. "What are friends for? Anyway, didn't your parents warn you about getting stuck in a bad neighborhood?"
"My team!" Cayo interjected. "They were on the surface! Are they-"
"They're fine, Cayo." Ahardt assured him. "They're back on Hovak right now."
Cayo gave a great sigh of relief.
"I can't believe it worked!" Haley said after Blake finally put her down. "We knew we'd never have enough air down there to wait until you arrived, so I basically… stored our information inside the rings' data crystals until you were close enough to pick us up! Overriding the rings' reintegration program and setting it to store us until you brought another set of rings within range was tricky, but it was either that or…"
"Or several much less survivable options." Hargrove finished for her. "It really was a brilliant idea."
Suna gave him an amused look, and he realized that he'd said something unusual by complimenting Haley's plan. Unusual for him, at least.
The Colonel shook his head. "I didn't understand most of what you just said, but I'm just glad you made it. Well done." He beckoned Archie over. "Take them over there and check them for any serious injuries. I'll tell General Carter we can get going."
Hargrove had to work to keep surprise off his features. He hadn't expected Carter to be along for the ride.
On the Colonel's orders, the rest of the strike team began to file out of the bay, heading to quarters or to whatever ship's job they'd apparently been training at. As he passed the Pyrta, though, the Colonel held the man's gaze about a second longer than necessary. Archie gave him a minute nod in response.
Hargrove kept his face expressionless as he allowed himself to be herded over to a quiet corner with the others. He ran through possibilities, and gave Archie a sidelong glance. The Deuca's left hand was hidden by part of his tunic, but the imprint under the cloth matched one of his scanners. That could only mean…
Hargrove looked over and saw SR-4 still in the bay, apparently talking to each other nonchalantly. They weren't armed with PL90s, though, he noticed.
Archie's scanning us, and they're in place to take us down, in case any of us were taken as hosts. Probably with tranquilizer rounds. Hargrove concluded to himself. Good for you, Colonel. Take precautions, but keep it hidden so as not to tip your hand. He felt a moment of pride for how well the Colonel had done without him.
From the expressions on their faces, the others were blissfully unaware of this, and Hargrove decided against telling them. No need to worry them. Besides, Suna had relaxed for the first time in days. He wasn't going to ruin that for her.
Hargrove began to relax, himself, something made much easier with plenty of oxygen. Just outside the bay, he could see the Colonel reach for the intercom panel on the wall.
"General, we've got what we came for. Let's get…" He trailed off as the rings suddenly began to activate on their own.
He looked at Hargrove. "Expecting company?"
"Oh, no…" Haley whispered.
Hargrove felt a thrill of terror run through him. "Get everyone out of here, now!"
