Beyond - part 3

TITLE : Beyond
AUTHOR : Jaclyn Horrod
EMAIL : jhorrod@hotmail.com
CATEGORY: Action, Drama
SPOILERS : Set in Season 4 - spoilers for Into The Fire, Shades of Grey, Thor's Chariot.
SEASON / SEQUEL : Season 4.  If you haven't read Jaclyn's stories : Sacrifices, The Rescue and Deception's Kiss, Interactions, Inquisitions, you might want to read them first.  Continues in Sedition.
RATING : 15 /  Mature.
CONTENT WARNINGS : Mature subject matter, cussing (what do you expect from Jack O'Neill?)
SUMMARY : O'Neill, freed from his liaison with Heru'Ur and Hathor, is hoping to return to his duties as team leader of SG-1.  But as he relives some of the memories with Jackson, he realises the ultimate goal of his ruthless and cunning former ally.  Now it's a race against time - can he and SG-1 prevent disaster?
STATUS : Complete.
ARCHIVE : Rabelais, Heliopolis.
DISCLAIMER : Stargate SG-1 and its characters belong to MGM, Gekko Film Corp and Double Secret Productions. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment purposes and no money exchanged hands. No copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
AUTHOR'S NOTES : I would like to thank my extraordinary beta-reader, Rach, whose constant encouragement and assistance is so greatly appreciated.  I could not have continued to write without her support.
FEEDBACK : Most definitely!

Part 3.1

"And, Colonel O'Neill's one of the good guys?" Ross intoned as they arrived on the other side of the gate, his stomach churning slightly, as he glimpsed the home world of Heru'ur for the first time. The dominating sight of the hundreds of Horus guards, made him feel uncomfortable immediately.

Carter shook her head. "Colonel Makepeace, sir, I'd like to get started here as soon as possible," she stated, ignoring the comments of the Lt. Colonel, whom she suspected was far too military minded to understand the intricacies of the situation.

"That's right Ross, certified good guy!" Makepeace replied, nodding toward Carter.   "Well we'd better find the ship. Right, I figure it's going to be close to the palace, so let's get a move on!"

"So Major Carter, you think you can figure out this code?" Ross asked, as the three made their way toward the palace, his eyes darting from one location to the next, the Horus guard who watched their every move spooking him.

"I hope so," she responded. "Earth's depending on it, so no pressure there!"

"Shouldn't that be ‘we’, Lt. Colonel?" Makepeace noted, an askant expression.

"Yes sir, I just..."

"Was trying to make conversation?" the marine colonel asked.

"Yes sir," Ross replied sheepishly. "Not too good at that with..."

"Relax Gary, it's a lot easier that way!" Makepeace told him. "I realise this is your first trip through the gate, and all this might take some time to sink in.  The thing that keeps us all sane here is knowing that none of this is real!"

"Sir?" Ross questioned, obviously confused by the Colonel's dry wit.

Makepeace looked at Carter, a grin, the Major returned the gesture. "Gary, how long you been in the Teams?" he asked.

"Five years sir. I was in intelligence before that," Ross responded.

"Intelligence, spec ops?" Makepeace enquired, having already thoroughly acquainted himself with Ross's file, the colonel deliberately made conversation simply to ease the tension he perceived from this altogether too tightly strung soldier.

"No sir, I was stationed in Washington sir, at the Pentagon army intelligence unit," Ross explained.

"Pretty impressive," the wily colonel responded.  As they walked on he turned once more to their new man.  "So you married?"

************

Daniel pulled his chair in behind him. Major Davis to his right, Hammond in his customary seat, Teal'c sat to his left and General Vidrine, a late arrival, taking a seat next to the Jaffa, who had managed to keep his personal feelings about the presence of Chronos under control.

"Colonel O'Neill, from what Dr. Jackson has told us, you're willing to offer the services of the Goa'uld in destroying this enemy, if Major Carter can access their technology and figure out how to overcome their weapons?" Vidrine asked, looking directly at O'Neill, who sat to the left of Heru'ur.

"The Goa'uld are prepared to work with the Tau'ri, this time, to overcome this problem," Heru'ur responded, a nod from O'Neill indicating that the Goa'uld system lord should answer.

Vidrine looked at O'Neill, who nodded slowly, meeting his eyes with an empty regard, almost an arrogance beginning to form.

"Since it's likely the best chance Earth has, I'd kinda say we're doing you a favour!" he stated finally, the same apathy in his tone.

Vidrine turned to Hammond. "He's pushing his luck!" he warned.

Hammond nodded. "Colonel..."

"It's not Colonel, George, or did you forget I resigned my commission?" O'Neill goaded, seeing the reaction of Vidrine to his last statement. "Now, we've already agreed right? Or you wouldn't have let Carter go, so why don't we cut the small talk and lay down the ground rules... we don't particularly like being here!"

"Um, yes, that's a good idea," Daniel announced. "Let's do that!" His tone elevated slightly, fixing his gaze on Hammond.

The General looked furiously at O'Neill. "So which one of you is speaking for the Goa'uld exactly?" he asked.

O'Neill gestured toward Heru'ur. "He's the boss!" he said flippantly.

"You have a proposition," Hammond stated. "We'd like to know exactly what that entails?"

The Goa'uld System Lord looked from Chronos to O'Neill, returning his gaze squarely onto Hammond. "Your world, once the weaknesses of these ships have been found, will be protected by our motherships from destruction, this is all we offer," he stated succinctly.

Hammond and Vidrine went into a huddle, lowering their voices.

"Excuse me!" O'Neill snapped. "It's kinda rude to whisper in front of such distinguished guests don't you think? Now do you accept our terms, that being for unlimited access to the appropriate personnel, in the form of a truce, until such time as both sides have achieved their joint goal?"

Hammond could hardly believe what he was hearing, O'Neill's surly tone, and bombastic attitude grating, clearly lacking any respect for either man's rank.

Daniel bit his bottom lip. 'That's pushing it Jack!' he thought, aware that the colonel could hear him perfectly.

O'Neill offering him a wry smile. "Clock's ticking!" he added out of sheer devilment.

"All personnel will be returned unharmed after this operation is carried out?" Hammond enquired, ignoring the colonel and addressing the question toward Heru'ur.

The Goa'uld nodded. "You have this assurance," he responded, his gaze intensifying then leaning forward. "However, should you attempt any infringement of this treaty, we will destroy your world ourselves!"

Vidrine's eyes moved between this most arrogant and loathsome of creatures, and O'Neill, who maintained the same air of disregard he had already shown himself capable of.  He'd been assured that the colonel was batting for the home team, but he found it hard to stomach such insubordination.

"I think we're finished here, right?" Jack insisted, standing. Chronos followed this example.   The colonel couldn't stand the thought of spending much more time in the company of Hammond, the General's obvious loathing of him permeating his senses, and he still hadn't quite forgiven the last indiscretion.

"We are!" Heru'ur stated, rising slowly.

O'Neill turned from the table, looking over his shoulder. "Daniel, you coming back with us?" he enquired.

Jackson looked at Hammond who nodded. "Go ahead Dr. Jackson, we appear to need everyone working on this problem," he agreed.

In Hammond's office, General Vidrine voiced his misgivings about the colonel's behaviour.   "I'm a little concerned by his attitude George, he's even beginning to behave like one of those Goa'uld!" he said, that concern evident in his tone.

"General, Dr. Jackson is adamant that having spoken at length with Colonel O'Neill, that he's just playing a role, and although I agree with you, since Dr. Jackson appears to be the only one who has been able to obtain any information from the colonel, I'm inclined to believe him," Hammond opined.

"Just how reliable is Dr. Jackson?" Vidrine asked.

"Daniel's very reliable sir," Major Davis offered. "And, like General Hammond, I just can't believe that Colonel O'Neill would have changed that dramatically, from everything I know about the Colonel sir, I'd say he's one of the most principled men I've ever met."

Vidrine seemed somewhat appeased by this passionate defence. "Yes, I'd have to agree with you about the principles, but we're sure it's Colonel O'Neill we're dealing with here, and not some form of mind control?"

"We can't really know that sir until Operation Destroy is actioned," Davis said. "It's a huge risk now, since we're effectively relying on the Goa'uld to destroy these aliens!"

"Timing Major, that's why we found the best man for the job!" Vidrine told him.

***********

Carter looked at the configuration closely. "Looks pretty uniform," she stated. "I'd say it's close to base eight math, if Colonel O'Neill could access the Ancients information to figure this it would be a damn cite quicker!"

"Ancients?" Ross asked, as he dragged himself under one of the six consoles on the ship’s bridge.

"It's a long story!" Sam told him. "So, how much do you know about the SGC sir?"

Ross shook his head. "Not very much, I've just been given my orders, need to know on the rest. Gotta say, this is one of the most bizarre operations I've ever been involved with," he admitted. "I mean, in two days I learn that we're getting a lot further than Mars, there's an enemy fifty times more powerful and aggressive than any we've ever faced before, and I'm gonna get a crash course in the two subjects!" He laughed then. "I've trained in some of the worst terrain there is, but man, this takes the biscuit. You travel through that wormhole regularly?"

"About once or twice a week, depending on circumstances," she replied, joining him under the console. "You know, it's weird, this sequence isn't anything like the one on the other console."

"Yeah, I have a feeling it's the same on everyone, sequencing seems to be based on an incremental ascension," he agreed.

“Well I guess if we figure out what kind of math they’re using, the rest should be pretty simple,” Carter opined, a smile toward the Lt. Colonel, who puffed out his cheeks. “Great!” he said. “So this knowledge the Colonel has, these Ancients, would that be any use to us?”

“I don’t know, but he obviously doesn’t think so!” she said. “Or I guess we wouldn’t be here!”

Makepeace sat by the door, listening to their exchanges. They lost him completely on the calculations; he was beginning to understand O'Neill's misgivings about working with scientists.

************

Heru'ur led the party back from the Stargate, he felt a sense of relief to be back on his own turf, such was his hatred of the Tau'ri in general. Chronos insisting that once they had the capacity to destroy this new enemy, that they simply leave the Tau'ri to their own fate, had been a tempting one, however, he knew, despite his new allegiance, which he had adequately and emphatically displayed once more, that O'Neill would never allow such treachery. 

He was quite possibly the most loyal and honourable creature that the System Lord had ever encountered. Saving his life, and his standing, from Apophis had underlined this fact, and in spite of his own nature, the pathos he had naturally inherited from Ra, from the Goa'uld, Heru'ur felt an obligation to meet these qualities where O'Neill was concerned.

"O'Neill, you will oversee the humans?" he asked, knowing that the colonel would have already made up his mind to do so.

"Yeah, Daniel and I will head there now," the colonel, agreed. "H?"

The Goa'uld stopped, turning, knowing instinctively that O'Neill had been addressing him.

The colonel waited until Chronos was some distance away. "Look, I don't trust him, when we've dealt with the Guardians, I'm thinking we should go back to our original plan and slam dunk this guy!" he opined.

"You are concerned by his treachery O'Neill?" Heru'ur asked.

"Yeah, that and just plain not liking him," the colonel responded.

"Your thirst for power is cunningly disguised O'Neill, but mirrors that of my own. We shall do as you wish, once this is over," the Goa'uld confirmed.

"Thanks, nice to know I'm so transparent!" Jack quipped, a smile at the system lord before heading off for the alien ship, Jackson in tow.

"Um, Jack, are you really going to start a war with Chronos?" Daniel enquired.

"Nope! We're gonna wipe him out Daniel, these things are far easier than you think," the colonel replied.

"Is that wise? I mean, won't it make it more difficult for you to leave and come back to the SGC?" Jackson asked.

"Hey! I'm playing this by ear, there are a lot of Goa'ulds out there, at least I know I can talk to this one," O'Neill retorted.

"And if you have to kill this one?" Daniel probed, some scepticism in his tone.

O'Neill stopped at the access to the alien ship. "Are you asking me if I can kill him?" Jack enquired. "’Cause the answer is yes, if I had to kill him Daniel I could, do I want to? No, I don't think I'd want to!" His eyes fixed on the archaeologist with a measure of concern that made Daniel uncomfortable.

"Well, that might be a problem, he is a Goa'uld," Jackson argued.

"Daniel, I don't wanna hear it, he's still got me 3 to 1 on life saving here, and, well he's been more of a... I like him, okay?" Jack insisted, clearly not willing to debate the subject.

"Yeah, I think I'm getting that," Daniel responded with a note of disdain.

O'Neill stopped, turning to face him abruptly. "Are you? Because it sounds a lot like you don't get it to me!" he snapped. "He's different Daniel, don't ask me how, but he is, he's got some..."

"Please don't say morals Jack, he's a Goa'uld, remember? He enslaves thousands of people, not to mention his own host who’s been a captive for thousands of years!" Daniel contested.

"Three thousand years to be exact," the colonel replied. "Look, he's no different to the Tok'ra, damn agreement or not, he's just..." O'Neill stated angrily.

"Different?" Jackson asked. "Jack, I'm seriously beginning to doubt whether or not he's done something to your mind! Just listen to you!"

"What? Oh please, now I'm under the influence of some Goa'uld technology? Is it really so hard for you to understand this Daniel? He saved my life, and yours, and he's about to save Earth too, because I asked!" Jack remonstrated. "So don't give me your damn moral lecture about what he is. I know what he is!"

"I'm really not sure that you do," Jackson opined. "He saves our lives, and possibly Earth and that excuses him from all other crimes? Have you forgotten Cimmeria?"

"No!" Jack snapped. "I haven't forgotten any of it Daniel, I'm just not sure killing him would solve anything, and besides he's saved Earth twice, or did you conveniently forget the last time I got him to stop Apophis?"

Daniel looked away, clearly perplexed. "No, I haven't forgotten, so what's the score Jack?" he asked.

"I'm not keeping score Daniel, but if I was, I'd say a couple of billion, twice over, and me and you!" he replied.

"He's still a Goa'uld!" Daniel insisted, becoming more and more frustrated by the colonel's unwillingness to see exactly what that meant.

"Yeah, he's a snake, but he's my friend!" An almost impassioned tone enveloped the words, Jack staring at the archaeologist as if finally, he'd admitted to the one thing that would give Jackson the ammunition needed to question the validity of his cause.

"That's it isn't it? He got to you, my god, Jack, I've been telling everyone how you can be trusted, and how you're on our side, one hundred per cent, but that isn't true is it?" Daniel's anger welling up into an almost spiteful attack on the one weakness he knew the colonel had. "Loyalty's going right out of the window on this one, isn't it?"

"No Daniel, I can just make a judgment not based on hatred for the death of someone I loved, if you can't I'm sorry!" Jack retorted.

"They killed my wife and that's all you can say?" Daniel asked, clearly distressed by the tone he perceived.

"No Daniel, it's not all I can say. I'm saying this Goa'uld didn't kill your wife, Apophis did, and I dealt with that right? For you and for Sha're. For Teal'c and his people. Go ask Nefir if the Jaffa who serve Heru'ur want their freedom? Not all Goa'uld are the same Daniel, and this one’s definitely not."

"You're unbelievable!" Daniel snapped furiously. "I don't know you Jack, you're just not making sense here?"

"Oh it makes sense Daniel, you just don't want to see it. I accepted Teal'c because he saved my life, and the lives of the people I cared about," Jack argued.

"That was different Jack, Teal'c was a slave; he didn't have a choice!" Daniel's riposte the perfect argument.

"Heru'ur doesn't have a choice either Daniel, he was born a Goa'uld, but he's not strictly maintaining their principles now is he?" O'Neill contested. "Look we can do this all day but we're not gonna agree here, are we?"

"No!" Daniel said emphatically. "No we're not!"

O'Neill shrugged, turning and entering the vessel. Daniel paused, he was angry, angry that his friend appeared to be so blinded by a few acts of humanity from a creature he loathed to the very core.  He felt uncertain now, about where this might lead, afraid of what it meant.

O’Neill turned abruptly then. “Judging me?” he asked, his eyes intense, burning into Jackson.

The archaeologist cringed outwardly, forgetting once more O’Neill’s ability to read his mind. “Jack this just doesn’t make sense, you’re, you’re...” he paused, “friends with a Goa’uld!” he blurted out loudly.

O’Neill’s head inclined to the left, his expression changing, considering. “I guess,” he replied. “But you haven’t had the foresight to ask why, not really. And since I can’t be bothered to have to explain myself, and my actions, to you... screw it!” he snapped.

“What foresight?” Jackson demanded. “Do you know what you’re saying? It sounds pretty damning to me Jack!”

Jack averted his eyes away from the archaeologist, a wry smile. “Yeah, everything’s so cut and dried for you right? But we’re not in danger from Heru’ur, Daniel, not whilst he’s trying to gain absolute power, and who knows, maybe not even then. In case you missed it, we strayed into their world. Okay, it was a mistake, but we opened up the Stargate, and we killed Ra. That making sense?” O’Neill demanded.

Daniel sighed heavily. “Okay, so this is our fault?” he asked.

“I’m not saying that, what I am saying is that we’re in the middle of something here, that maybe we don’t get. Yes Daniel, the Goa’uld are the enemy, but didn’t it occur to you that one of them might just be the key?” O’Neill’s passion poured into those words. “We started this, we opened the Gate!” he added, almost as if that explanation on it’s own should mean everything.

“Yes,” Jackson agreed. “I heard you the first time, but since it is open, and we’re right in the middle of this don’t you think you should get a reality check?”

“I need a reality check?” O’Neill laughed. “Wow, now that’s profound. Daniel, everything that’s happened, Sha’re, Skaa’ra, well that’s been Apophis right? And yeah, he’s a Goa’uld, and they’re all out for one thing, domination. But hasn’t it ever crossed your mind that that’s the very reason we need Heru’ur?”

“No!” Daniel snapped, angry now, blinded by his indiscriminate hatred of the Goa’uld. “We don’t need Heru’ur Jack, we need a way to stop the Goa’uld!”

“How?” O’Neill enquired, his tone lowered, open. “How do we do that? Thor? The Asgaard? In case you forgot we almost got wiped out by one of their enemies. Listen, I hate the Goa’uld as much as you do, believe me, but I don’t have the damn luxury of just hating them Daniel, I’m right in the middle of them, and so far this one’s working out just fine with me!” Jack remonstrated, the volume of his voice now raised.

“Great, so he saves our lives,” Jackson begun.

“Don’t forget Earth in that equation,” Jack snapped.

“And he’s our saviour? You’re nuts!” Daniel berated. “You’ve seriously lost your perspective on this haven’t you?”

“Oh for crying out loud!” Jack yelled. “No! You’ve lost your damn perspective Danny boy, right about the time Sha’re got her snake, isn’t it obvious to you by now that we’re alone, we don’t have anyone to depend on except our own guile?”

“Apparently we have Heru’ur,” Jackson mocked. “A Goa’uld, to save us from the Goa’uld... isn’t that just a little hypocritical?”

O’Neill smiled. “Yep!” he agreed. “It’s all of the above Daniel, and we’re stuck with it… or at least I am. You don’t like that, well that’s tough!”

“Same old Jack!” Daniel snapped. “Mister can’t win an argument, so let’s just be unreasonable.”

“No Daniel, I’m winning the argument. You name me one time we’ve effectively shut down the Goa’uld before?” O’Neill ventured, looming ever closer to the archaeologist. “Like I almost shut down Apophis?”

Jackson stared at him, clearly O’Neill wouldn’t be dissuaded, and he didn’t comprehend why. He couldn’t agree, wouldn’t agree, that Heru’ur might be the one way to guarantee Earth’s ultimate security. He knew, in time that Heru’ur would turn his attention to Earth, there was simply no way he could ignore it. It was his nature to conquer.

“Jack?” he said softly.

“What?”

“I think we’d just better leave this,” he suggested, “I don’t think either one of us is going to agree, and I’d really hate for a Goa’uld to be the one to come between us!”

O’Neill nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” he agreed. “We’re just going around in circles here anyhow!”

“Good, shall we?” Daniel asked, gesturing toward the alien craft.

“After you Dr. Jackson,” O’Neill told him.

***********

"Carter!" Jack announced, Makepeace standing up immediately.

"Hi sir," Carter beamed.

"So how's it going?" Jack asked, looking across at Ross. "So you're joining the SGC, or is this a one off numbers deal?"

"It's going fine sir, we've figured out the raw combinations, but..." Carter answered, pausing to allow Ross to speak.

"I'm here to assist Sam," he replied. "And maybe stay on if they need me!"

"Sam?" O'Neill repeated, a grin sweeping his face.

Carter blushed, looking away from him. "We might need your help sir," she told him.

O'Neill looked startled. "My help?"

"The numerology is similar to the Ancients sir, it's going to take some time to break the code, but if you can formulate it, it might be a lot quicker!" Carter explained.

The colonel looked at her apprehensively. He shook his head, moving closer. "These symbols don't mean anything major," he stated.

"Sir, we really could use a break here," she insisted.

"Right, well I don't know about that…" he replied, looking at the computer like screen she sat in front of. His features suddenly concentrated. "Wait, it's..." He leant forward his hand resting on the screen; the images began to flash across what Carter had thought to be merely the force shield at the front of the ship.  O'Neill closed his eyes as he concentrated allowing the free flow from his mind of information that he found hard to control. The intense pain that filled his mind caused him to wince.

"Whoa!" Carter exclaimed. "Sir what did you do?"

Ross stood up, looking curiously at the colonel, whose concentration seemed absolute.

"Jack?" Daniel asked, watching the colonel's features contorting with the obvious discomfort he felt.

"I don't think he can hear us Daniel," Carter told him, watching the colonel's body begin to tremble slightly, his face draining of blood.

"Well, looks like he found the code!" Ross stated.

"Jack's got this telepathic ability from an Ancients download," Jackson explained to Ross. "It's how he knew the intentions of this race, obviously he can access their technology the same way."

"The Ancients being?" Ross enquired, a glance toward Jackson.

"The builders of the Stargate system, we've never actually met them yet, but we've been on a few planets that they used to inhabit," Daniel told him. "The download was pretty much all the knowledge of this race, we're not even sure how much Jack knows, it doesn't exactly present itself until... well like now!"

"Isn't that a little weird? I mean having all that stuff in your head and not being able to access it?" Ross wondered. "And pretty dangerous?"

"Um, well, I think Jack found it a little frustrating to start with, but..." Daniel broke off as finally the images slowed, and a complete operating system of the ship appeared before them.

Jack stepped back, gasping for breath, his body still shaking with the effort of accessing this alien technology. "Ah crap! That was not comfortable!" he snapped, a grimace sweeping across his face, the discomfort right there with it.

"Jack, are you okay?" Daniel asked, crossing the distance quickly between them.

"Yeah, I'm fine," O'Neill replied, looking at the schematic. "Okay, there it is. Daniel, get that translated. Carter, see if you can figure out how to disarm their shields."

"Wouldn't it be faster if you worked it out?" Ross asked. "I mean since you obviously know how to get in."

O'Neill raised his eyebrows, looking directly at Ross now. "No Lt. Colonel, it wouldn't be faster, in fact we'd probably all still be here this time next year!" he replied sarcastically. "Scientist?" That comment directed toward Makepeace.

Makepeace nodded. "Nice catch!" the colonel confirmed.

O'Neill shook his head. "Carter, how long?" he asked.

"Could take a while sir, these schematics aren't exactly like anything I've ever seen!" she told him.

"They've got powerful shield arrays Major, but the problem is the technology they used to disrupt the power sources on the Goa'uld ships, which by the way, managed to penetrate the shields to do it!" O'Neill imparted.

"Must have some kind of frequency modulator sir, I'll see what I can find out," she said.

"Sweet, need my help for anything else?" O'Neill enquired, beginning to walk toward the exit, his Jaffa following him.

"Thank you sir," Carter said.

Daniel had his notepad in his hand, beginning to work out the text that he hoped would explain the working of the ship’s systems.

Carter and Ross studied the schematics. "Looks like the power source is here," she said pointing to a small point on the diagram. "Central, which makes sense."

"We'd need to target that, once we find the right frequency to penetrate their shields," Ross agreed. "That's got to be the weapons… maybe."

Carter looked across at Jackson. "Daniel, how long?"

"Working on it," Jackson replied. "I don't really know though, it's pretty intricate."

"We're not exactly pressed for time," Ross said. "I mean, the ships heading to Earth are what, just under two weeks away?"

"Not if they wipe out the Goa'uld ships first!" Makepeace opined.

***********

Heru'ur spun around quickly, regarding Zipacna with his disparaging sneer. "You are sure this information is correct?" he asked.

"I have received this information from your own spies my lord," Zipacna responded, lowering his head.

"We will need to act immediately. Nefir, summon Chronos and O'Neill, have my ships readied!" he ordered, looking once more at toward Apophis’ former aid. "If you are wrong you will pay with your life!"

Chronos, who had been speaking with his own first prime in his quarters, appeared first. "What is it?" he demanded.

"We wait for O'Neill," Heru'ur instructed.

The colonel took his time into the hastily called meeting. "What's up?" he asked, as he wandered in, still recovering from the experience of having his mind integrated with the alien ship’s systems.

"My spies in the Haxlor galaxy inform us that the renegades plan to use our current predicament to invade both Yu’s and Nefertum's realms, we must act immediately to quell this rebellion," he insisted.

"Sweet! Just what we need, how many?" Jack asked.

"Our information does not stretch to this," Heru'ur told him.

"We can not risk such a rebellion taking hold, we must send a message to those who would dare to challenge us!" Chronos snapped.

"My ships await, Chronos, you will take the Samsilka, O'Neill will use his new fleet against any ships that escape us!" Heru'ur instructed.

O'Neill shook his head. Involving themselves in such a battle might weaken the remaining fleet for the impending confrontation with an enemy far more powerful than a small and insignificant Goa'uld force.

"Look, how many can they have? This is kinda crazy don't ya think? Sending the entire strength of the Goa'uld against maybe a few thousand?" Jack insisted.

"O'Neill, we must ensure that no Goa'uld believes we can be threatened." Heru'ur tried to explain the posturing and pecking order within the Goa'uld.

"Now see, I get that, but the whole fleet?" Jack argued. "It's just not productive, what if the Guardians decide to make a move at the same time?"

Heru'ur considered the dilemma facing them. O'Neill was correct, should they commit their entire force against what might only amount to a small rebellion, they risked leaving a vast area of Goa'uld space to the enemy - yet they had no means of successfully engaging this foe without first knowing how to undermine the technology, which was clearly far in advance of their own.

"We must react O'Neill, to ignore this without a swift and emphatic response would ensure that others would seek to undermine our authority," Heru'ur insisted.

"Why do we listen to this?" Chronos insisted. "We allow this rebellion to gain momentum the more we delay!"

"Yeah, you're right, but we'd also be kinda wrapped up if they come up with the solution here, right?" Jack retorted. "And we're close!" he emphasised.

"My lord." Zipacna addressed O'Neill now, the colonel turning to regard him. "We have learned of one of the leaders of this rebellion, and such a foe can not be allowed to gain any ground, to prevent this would surely leave us vulnerable to her forces becoming overwhelming!"

"Alright, so we've got who? Some kind of Nurti wannabe?" he demanded. "I mean how bad can she be?"

Heru'ur turned slowly toward O'Neill. "She is Hathor, O'Neill!" he said.

Jack O'Neill's face dropped, his eyebrows furrowed, disbelief swept his expression.

"Ah crap!" he replied. "Come on, for crying out loud, she's dead!"

"She is very much alive my lord, and far more dangerous than any other we have faced. Many Jaffa remember her as the Queen of Goa'uld, the wife of Ra, the supreme God!" Zipacna told him.

O'Neill took a deep breath. "You know, someone should tell these damn snakes when you die, you're meant to stay dead!" he snapped.

"Your position is changed?" Heru'ur asked.

"Oh yeah," Jack opined. "If you'd said so in the first place, we'd have been there already!"

*************

O'Neill's appearance in the alien ship broke the long silence that had permeated as Carter, and Jackson had began at last to figure out exactly what they were looking at.

"Listen up!" he announced. "I'm gonna be a little busy for a while, you find anything get Zippy to contact me on one of them long range device things!"

Daniel looked up. "Jack, where you going?"

"Well apparently the obituaries need updating again Daniel," Jack spat in disgust.

"What?" Carter asked.

"It seems the snakes have nine lives!" he commented.

"Apophis?" Daniel enquired, standing up stretching his aching limbs.

"Nope. Hathor!" Jack informed them, watching the faces of his team drop one by one, nodding slowly. "Yeah," he rasped. "Gotta love them Sarcophagi don't ya!"

Daniel frowned heavily. "Great!" he complained.

O'Neill turned exiting the ship, leaving his colleagues to their own thoughts.

*************

The motherships jumped into hyperspace, heading 4 billion light years into a galaxy that the Goa'uld had held since their earliest conquests.  Heru'ur had demanded that O'Neill keep his ships in reserve, to catch any of the rebels that might attempt to slip through.

"Well this is disappointing," Jack complained, to Kalim, who stood dutifully by his side as they watched the engagement of the massed ships of Heru'ur and Chronos swamping the lesser forces of Hathor's fleet.

"My lord!" Kalim exclaimed, indicating a ship making off to their right.

"Gotta be!" Jack snapped. "Send the ships around her flank," he ordered.

The Jaffa, who by now was accustomed to many of the curious orders his master would give, instructed the ships to corral the stray, runaway vessel.

"My lord, Hathor hails you!" Kalim informed him.

O'Neill nodded his permission, watching as the image of the Goa'uld queen appeared on the device before him.

"O'Neill?" She seemed surprised, and then composed herself. "We had heard that a new System Lord held the domain of Nurti and Sokar!" she said coolly.

"Yeah, you wanted something?" Jack asked, his dislike of this particular Goa'uld affording him little patience.

"We are prepared to surrender," she replied. "We turn our ship, and our forces over to you!"

"Sorry, we don't need the ship," Jack replied, about to give the order to destroy the vessel as the rings activated to his left.

His eyes averted from the now blank screen, the form of Hathor appeared before him. The Jaffa immediately reacted, covering her with Staff weapons and Zat guns.

"What part of no, don't you get?" O'Neill asked, a sour expression on his face.

"We, would be prepared to serve you," Hathor told him as she moved toward him.

"Alright, fine, take off the ribbon device, and do it slowly," Jack insisted, clearly thrown by this wily Goa'uld.

Hathor did as instructed, dropping the device onto the floor, continuing to move forward her eyes fixed on his. "We would make you a perfect queen!" she announced.

Jack's eyebrows shot up. "We don't think so, put her in a cell, we'll see what Heru'ur wants to do with her!" he ordered.

Her hand stroked his face softly. "We are not pleased!" she told him. "Our forces are far greater than those you have in your possession, and we have the answer to your problems."

"Hey! We're not exactly having a good time either!" O'Neill complained pausing then.

"What?" he demanded.

"The Guardians, we have their secrets, a captive aboard our ship," Hathor told him.

O'Neill stared at her.   "Sweet, thanks. Cell!" he responded, toward his first prime.

"He will only tell these secrets to us," Hathor insisted.

Jack took a deep breath. "Alright, what do you want?" he demanded, taking a firm grip on her arm. 

Hathor smiled. "To be your equal, your queen!" she said, a smile sweeping her face. "Together we could rule the Goa'uld!"

O'Neill shook his head. "Okay that's not gonna happen.  We'll figure it out!" Jack contested. "So." He was unable to break eye contact, her beauty seemingly fixating him.

"You control the forces of Sokar and Nurti, O'Neill, perhaps you have not realised your power, but we will show you. We can teach you how to rule, together we will be the most powerful force within the Universe!"  Her hands rested softly on his chest, her lips brushed his, their eyes still locked together.

"No," he protested, no weight to this word. He shook his head moving back away from her, sensing that somehow, she had something he couldn't control, didn't want to control.   He moved forward then, wrapping her in his arms, their lips meeting. Everything told him to stop, screamed inside his head to pull away, yet he found himself unable to comply, his arms tightened around her, the kiss seemed to make his head spin gloriously, into an almost ecstatic state.

They moved apart. "Together, we will conquer the universe!" she said again, as the colonel gazed at her, his heart beating a little faster, he felt intoxicated. He smiled.

Part 3.2

Heru'ur slammed his hand down hard on the console, the Jaffa behind him shrinking, unused to seeing their master display such uncontrolled anger.

O'Neill's image on the long-range communication device undaunted. "Look, she's got stuff that we need to defeat these damn Guardians, and I like having her around. H, will you just relax!"

The Goa'uld's eyes glowed furiously. "O'Neill, she cannot be trusted, you go too far!" he insisted, almost a note of caution in his tone.

"Look!" Jack snapped, leaning closer to the device. "This whole alliance thing was your idea, remember? So you're just gonna have to trust that I know what I'm doing, she's changed!"

Heru'ur looked almost stunned, his eyes closing for a moment, considering what he might say to that particular piece of information, frustrated by the inability to deal immediately with this new threat. 

"O'Neill, I would see you back at my home world, now!" he snapped, watching the expression on the Colonel's features change.

"Yeah right, listen we've got the answers here, so I guess we'll see you back at the RV point," he agreed, his tone vague.

The device terminated then, leaving the Goa'uld seething. "Nefir, you will deal with this problem!" he snapped. "She can not be allowed to influence O'Neill with whatever means she has employed!"

"Yes my lord," Nefir responded.

Heru'ur contacted Chronos.

"O'Neill has captured Hathor," he informed him. "He has forged a new alliance, taken her as his queen!"

Chronos frowned heavily. "What? She is dangerous and devious. This cannot be permitted.  I will not permit it!" he asserted.

Heru'ur's eyes glowed. "In case you forget, O'Neill has the power of the Ancients, he has insisted that she serve him! It will ensure both are kept in check!" he insisted.

"She has no power over him, it is his right!"

"If he were a Goa'uld, Heru'ur I would agree he has the right of victor, but he is merely a slave who you entrust, Nurti trusted him too!" Chronos warned.

"Her mistake was to attempt to control him, to subjugate him to her will, Hathor will not make the same mistake, neither will I," Heru'ur spat. "Their offspring will be imprinted with his knowledge, when they are able to take hosts, he will no longer be of use to us and you may do with him what you like. Until then, you will Kree!"

**********

Hathor followed O'Neill to the cell. The Guardian, a tall lithe individual with an albino complexion, and those alarming pink eyes, had seated himself in the far corner of the holding cell, watched them suspiciously as they entered.

"Whoa!" O'Neill remarked. "That's different!"

"We have come to possess your knowledge," Hathor boasted, walking toward the creature, which appeared terrified of her presence.

"See you're liked in all the best galaxies!" Jack commented dryly.

She looked sharply at O'Neill then, about to censure him for his impudence, quickly casting this aside, another of her well-conceived smiles instead foisted upon him.

"Your ships!" Her intense gaze, the anger it held now returned once more upon the bizarre looking creature.  "You will tell us how to defeat them, or you will die, slowly, possessed by a Goa'uld!"

That statement disturbed Jack momentarily, about to say something but instead he remained silent, allowing Hathor to terrify this creature. Earth depended on obtaining that information; right now he didn't particularly care how she got it. As long as he could save Earth, but he didn't understand why, why it was so important, why was he trying so hard to protect something that he didn't care about? He didn't owe them anything, nothing at all! 

He stepped back then, exhaling slowly, surprised by those thoughts, they sounded hollow, almost empty, not his, definitely not his!

"Ah, Hathor, can we go outside for a minute?" he asked.

"Of course my beloved," she replied, a sweet smile enveloping her face as she followed him. She paused in front of him, looking deeply into his eyes.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Look, I'm not gonna let you put a snake..." His voice trailed off, wrapped in her gaze, his eyes acquiesced immediately, filled with adoration. He felt a weakness for this woman something that seemed to hypnotise him, her beauty perhaps, those eyes.

"We must do whatever it takes my beloved," she intoned. "These creatures threaten our very existence."

"Yeah, whatever it takes, right," he replied, unable to free his gaze from her, overwhelmed with desire, with longing. 

He leant forward and kissed her, the passion he felt flowing through him, sweeping her up into his arms, and pushing her back against the golden glyphs that lined the walls outside the cell.

Surprised by his want, she responded quickly, her fingers caressing his neck, her long nails biting into the muscle, an urgency to embrace this moment. Parting slowly, their eyes locked together.

"Your desire is strong my Pharaoh," she declared. "We are indeed honoured by your approval of our beauty!"

Jack's eyebrows rose slowly. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, his hand reaching up and cupping her chin, brushing his lips across hers once more. "You've really got me all turned around here," he confessed, kissing her again softly. "Maybe I should..."

She smiled at him; confident that the resistance she'd felt earlier had now totally subsided.   "Perhaps you would feel more comfortable allowing me to deal with this creature alone?" She spoke softly, her hands reaching up and caressing his hair. "I will bring you all the information necessary to defeat them, and we shall share in this victory together!"

Jack smiled back at her still lost in the moment. "Yeah, probably best. I'll be on the Pel'tac, and listen, we don't have much time here!" he emphasised, turning and beginning to walk slowly away, torn by an overwhelming urge to possess her, his lips still tingling from her kiss, an almost puerile glance back over his shoulder.  "Whoa!" he gushed again, a huge grin swept his face.

**********

Daniel sat back against the smallest console, his head was aching from hours of translation that made little or no sense, it felt like hours had passed without a breakthrough.

"Well this isn't good," he complained. "It's like trying to learn hieroglyphics all over again, I didn't like school much!" Accented to underline the point.

"I know," Sam sighed, sitting back next to him. "Everything aches, my eyes, my head, my neck’s stiff and I can't work out how they generate this energy to deflect and penetrate the Goa'uld technology!"

Daniel looked at her sympathetically. "Well I'm feeling slightly useless!" he opined, as if this admission might help ease her feelings of inadequacy. "And then of course there's Hathor! Which is probably the reason I'm having trouble concentrating!"

"Yeah I know, the colonel threw her into a vat of liquid nitrogen, hardly something you'd think even a Goa'uld could survive!" Carter agreed, her right hand still kneading her neck roughly trying to force the dull ache from her mind. "I hope he blows her right out of space this time!"

"Knowing our luck she'd probably land in a Sarcophagus," Jackson joked. "Here, let me." His hands gripped her shoulders before she could stop him, his fingers softly, but firmly, massaging the muscles. He felt her flinch, smiling to himself at her obvious embarrassment.

"Oh, you are tense," he remarked, kneeling to gain better purchase.

"Um, thanks," Carter said dubiously, totally chastened by this contact.

Her embarrassment not helped by the mirth that spread across Colonel Makepeace's face as he stared at her, an accusatory refrain sitting on those rugged features.

"I guess a Goa'uld can survive just about anything, bar three Zat discharges!" Daniel opined looking up at Makepeace thoughtfully. "Hope Jack has one!!"

"You know this would be so much easier if we knew exactly how this stuff worked,"

Sam stated, relaxing into Jackson's firm grasp. "If I could take something back to the SGC and analyse it," she continued. "No lower, I'd be able to get some idea of what we're dealing with here!"

"Would knowing the compounds make it any easier to work out the energy?" Ross asked. "It's not like we've got anything on Earth that could stop these guys!"

"Well, it would at least tell us if this ship’s made out of something we don't have recorded, it might be useful," she added thoughtfully, enjoying the sensation of Daniel's attention, the muscles beginning to ease, she relaxed into his grasp.

"So Major, before you, and Dr. Jackson there, get engaged," Makepeace quipped, an obvious and successful attempt at embarrassing his charge, enjoying the pink hue that quickly rose in her cheeks, "can we at least try to decipher this? We don't exactly have much time here!"

"No sir, I mean, yes sir, we're working on it." She moved away from Daniel quickly then, the archaeologist scowling at Makepeace who grinned back at him.

"Well, back to work I guess," he lamented, his eyes heavenwards, as he contemplated that particular task, lifting the text book he'd been using to make notes and groaning at the contents, which still made no sense.

Jack O'Neill's entrance prevented the team from continuing. "Sir, were you successful?" Carter asked. Her eyes widened, expression stricken, almost the moment she saw that Hathor followed him inside. The conceited regard of the SGC personnel almost stomach wrenching, as her hands reached up to his arm, clinging to him, pulling herself to his body, his reaction to this gesture unmistakable; he seemed to grow in stature, a warm smile crossed his eyes.

"Oh, that's an understatement!" Makepeace remarked, shaking his head as if to erase this aberration from his sight.

"You are working with the Tau'ri?" Hathor asked, almost as if this had come as a surprise to her.

"Yeah, I am." Jack answered. "We didn't exactly have a choice," he continued dismissively, turning to Carter momentarily.  "Listen, we've got the Guardian's ships thing figured out, so we're not exactly gonna be needing you to figure it… out." The mixed and chaotic nature of the statement merely added to the bemused expressions on the faces of his colleagues.

"We?" Daniel enquired, the surprise in his voice mirrored by the way his eyebrows rose steeply into his forehead. "We?"

"I heard you the first time," the colonel told him, an askant repose sweeping his face.

Carter's eyes widened like Jackson's, as this most unlikely of couples intertwined their fingers together, covetous of each other, the intense gaze between them almost making Jackson feel like he was intruding, adding to the shock that shrouded his face.

Makepeace frowned heavily, standing up and walking to where he could better examine the situation. "Excuse me, weren't you going to kill her?" he asked unable to contain his distaste at this display of obvious affection.

"We will be O'Neill's queen!" Hathor announced clearly elated, or so her voice and manner portrayed, with this news.

Daniel's eyes closed, shaking his head gently. "We?" he said again, unable to believe what he was seeing.

"Daniel!" Jack retorted loudly, finally tearing himself away from her eyes for a moment. "Will you stop saying that!"

"Oh I'm sorry, it's just that we thought you were, um, never mind!" Daniel sighed.

"Carter, we've managed to get the information we need to wipe out these ships," O'Neill told her, ignoring the horrified expression on her face. "Did I say that already?" he asked, appearing slightly confused.

"Yes sir!" Carter replied.

"It is written on this tablet, you will need Daniel to help you, it's in Goa'uld my dear," Hathor told her, leaving the colonel's side now and presenting Carter with the tablet, seeming to enjoy the dismay that she saw so obviously in their eyes. "Already our ships are being modified to deal with this enemy, I understand we shall once again be saving the Tau'ri?" A mocking tone was in her voice. "You may take this information back to Earth with you!"

"We?" Daniel said again, still incapacitated through shock. "Jack!" Finally. "What in the hell are you doing?"

O'Neill looked confused. Hathor's presence kept his mind imprisoned. "What?" he asked, unable to concentrate on anything, except the Goa'uld queen who now held his attention once more.

"Well, isn't this just a little insane?" Daniel enquired, moving closer to the colonel.

"What Hathor?" Jack's confusion was obvious as he turned and stared at the archaeologist, trying to discern why this might be so.

Sam glared at Hathor.  "What tricks are you using this time?" she demanded, her loathing openly illustrated.

"You flatter yourself my dear!" Hathor responded. "We are a Goddess, a queen, and O'Neill has come to realise this." Her voice was full of reverence. "He is our Pharaoh! Together we shall be more powerful than you can possibly imagine!" She walked elegantly toward Daniel, her smile unable to hold his gaze. "We have replaced you!"

"Oh you're breaking my heart!" Jackson retorted sharply, the disgust he felt at having her so close to him written all over his face.  He moved away, turning his back on her.

Carter felt sickened at the thought of O'Neill once more acceding to a Goa'uld, without being able to assist him, she felt more than ever now that Vidrine's plan to eliminate Heru'ur and return the colonel to the SGC was vital.

She glanced over at Jackson, whose rueful expression underlined her thoughts. "Sam," he said softly, "you're wasting your time!"

"Okay, so we'll prepare the ships and you guys can go on back to Earth!" Jack stated, his eyes once more fixed on Hathor, as she moved to join him.

"Come my beloved, we will lead our army against them," she cooed, her fingers brushing against his cheek softly.

Jack smiled adoringly at her, his eyes lit up at her attention; his right hand swept away a lock of hair that had fallen on her cheek.

Carter turned away repulsed by these gestures, no longer able to watch this lurid scene unfolding before her eyes. She wanted to draw her weapon and obliterate this detestable Goa'uld right where she stood, but she felt powerless to act, not knowing how the Colonel might react, whatever was influencing him might precipitate her having to wound, or worse kill him if he responded in a threatening manner.  Her mind was in turmoil, desperate, how could this have happened?

"Well, bye!" Jack announced, the couple turning almost as one and departing, leaving the stunned SGC personnel in silence.

"Well this is insane," Daniel groaned again, sitting on one of the consoles. "I mean, Hathor? Is he trying to populate the entire universe with O'Neill symbiotes?"

"Daniel, don't be disgusting!" Carter snapped, looking furiously at the archaeologist, who raised his hands in self-defence.

"Sorry!" he replied. "First Nurti, and now Hathor!"

Makepeace took a deep breath. "Man do things ever go the way you want them to around here?" he asked.

Carter was off in a world of her own, as she tried to figure out what Hathor had done to have Jack O'Neill so besotted. "It has to be some new form of mind control, there's no way the Colonel would find her attractive!" Sam remonstrated, her hands gesticulating wildly. "How could he let her do this?"

Daniel stared at her, wondering if this outburst was borne purely from frustration or jealousy, both perhaps!

"Sam, I think that goes without saying, she's a Goa'uld!" Daniel offered. "And I think this whole thing just got one hell of a lot worse!"

"It also puts our plan in jeopardy!" Makepeace remarked. "So we'd better figure out what we're going to do here, think of some reason to stay, we might have to eliminate two targets now!"

Daniel looked up abruptly, a curious expression, regarding Colonel Makepeace.

"I don't know sir, with the colonel clearly under her influence it could be risky to stay!" Carter argued, clearly distressed, she walked up and down in front of Jackson. "What could she be using? He's immune to Nishta, and whatever substance she used on you guys before."

"Major, I don't care how risky this gets, Jack has access to the SGC, how damn risky will that be if he decided to go over to the Goa'uld completely!" Makepeace snapped.

"Excuse me?" Daniel interrupted loudly. "What plan would this be?"

The Colonel looked at Carter, his head inclining to the left. "Go ahead, he might as well know, we'll probably need him to deal with Jack," Makepeace asserted.

"Yes, tell me!" Daniel snapped, looking from Makepeace to Carter, hesitantly.

"General Vidrine ordered that instead of targeting Colonel O'Neill, we take out Heru'ur and bring the colonel back to Earth, under duress if necessary," she imparted.

Daniel looked flabbergasted. "Oh I get it, hence our new fifth!" he acknowledged, scorn poured into those words, resonating from his eyes. "So when were you going to tell me exactly?  Because this is such a bad plan, Jack could have come up with it!"

"Dr. Jackson, this isn't your call!" Makepeace snapped. "We have a situation here!"

"Really?" Daniel barked back, the fury beginning to rise in his eyes at an alarming rate. "Since I know Jack, and where he stands on that particular issue, better than any of you, you'd think you might have at least mentioned it to me first."

"Daniel what are talking about?" Carter asked, confused by that statement still trying to figure out what hold Hathor had over the colonel.

"Jack likes Heru'ur, he considers him to be a friend. Whether I agree with him or not, if you made any attempt on the life of that Goa'uld you'd be in danger of losing him for good," he remonstrated. "I mean, my God, you treat him like a criminal, have no faith or respect, and then, when everything in his mind is completely confused, when he trusts, likes this Goa'uld, you plan to kill him?"

He stood, his eyes switching from one to the other.

"Heru'ur is the enemy Daniel, we don't have a choice here," Makepeace responded.

"And if Jack feels that way then maybe he is under the influence of the damn snakes, which makes this way more pressing!"

"Oh yes, you're right, he's under the influence alright Colonel. Probably ever since Heru'ur saved his life and has shown him more loyalty than his own people have, I'd call that a damn compelling reason to be under the influence. You're insane if you think this will work!" he vociferated. "At least I understand where Jack's coming from, but you Sam?"

"Daniel, he's a Goa'uld!" Carter insisted. "How can you defend him?"

"I'm not defending him, I don't care whether you blow his head off, but you don't get the point here, Jack does," he argued. "He thinks Heru'ur is different, and even if I don't agree, I wouldn't tread there, not on those toes!" He was looking at Carter, the anger beginning to subside. "Not if I ever wanted him back!"

"So what?" Makepeace challenged. "We do nothing? Hope that Jack comes to his senses and realises that he's making a mistake? Come on Dr. Jackson, you know as well as I do that these Goa'uld can't be trusted. We can't go on, indiscriminately allowing O’Neill to play god!"

"He's not playing god, Colonel, he was trying to make a difference," Jackson's rebuttal adamant, his tone consumed with irony.

"Well he sure sounds like he's playing god!" Ross insisted. "Swanning in here and acting like he's some kind of hero because he had the answer!"

Makepeace looked at the hapless Ross enraged by that statement. "He is a hero, Lt. Colonel, he holds the highest commendations of any officer I know," he castigated. "So I advise you to shut your mouth until you can think something intelligent might fall out if it!"

"I apologise sir, that was uncalled for," Ross said.

"Daniel are you telling me Jack's possibly, definitely, gonna side with this Goa'uld over us?" Makepeace asked, his attention returned in a more controlled fashion toward the archaeologist.

"No Colonel, I never said that, but you won't do any of us any favours by killing someone he believes he owes his life too!" Daniel replied, his composure beginning to return. "Believe me Colonel, if I thought what you were suggesting would work, I'd pull the trigger myself!"

"This is insane, why are we talking about this?" Ross asked. "He's not in the military, he doesn't get the right to make these calls!"

Makepeace turned on the errant soldier instantly. "What part of that last address didn't you understand Ross?" he demanded. "Dr. Jackson may be a civilian, but he's considered an expert, and a valued member of this team!"

Carter regarded the archaeologist. "Daniel, we have to do something," she said. "I know what you're saying about the colonel being confused, and I understand that, but Hathor's not confusion Daniel, you know what she's capable of."

"Yes Sam, you're right, I know, I just don't agree with this, and I won't go along with it.  For one thing if you even attempted it, there would be a thousand Jaffa on you so fast, you'd be dead before he was!" Jackson insisted.

Carter sighed heavily. "Okay Daniel, then what would you do?" she asked.

Jackson looked away from her. "I'm thinking that Heru'ur isn't going to be too happy about having Hathor around," he began. "And since he's gone to all this trouble to have Jack as an ally, to probably control the power of the Ancients that he has access to, then I'm thinking he might be the one person to stop this, give him a chance!" he contested.

"He's a Goa'uld, he's not gonna kill one of his own!" Ross snapped.

Carter turned and regarded the Lt. Colonel. "Oh he will sir, if he perceives her as a threat, he'll take her out in a heartbeat!"

"Colonel, can I at least try this?" Daniel asked, for once showing the due respect to the senior officer, Makepeace's defence of O'Neill had impressed him, taken him a little by surprise.

"Try what?" Makepeace enquired, leaning forward curiously.

"Talking to Heru'ur, getting an idea of where he stands?" Daniel explained, looking dubiously back at the colonel. "And I know what you're going to say, but you just have to trust that I know what I'm doing here, it's probably the only way!"

Makepeace looked at Carter. "Is he cracked?" he asked. "Dr. Jackson, you want to go and discuss the possibility of killing a Goa'uld, with a... Goa'uld?"

"Um, well no not exactly," Daniel replied. "I'm just trying to stop you making a really stupid mistake. One incidentally, that will probably get us all killed and that won't exactly help much either!"

"Daniel, I'm sorry, but I don't agree. Colonel Makepeace is right, you can't approach Heru'ur, hoping he's like minded, it just doesn't make sense!" Carter argued. "And even if he does agree with you, what makes you think he'll do anything to help us?"

"Sam, I really don't think he’d do anything to help us, but he would do it to help himself.  Besides," Daniel opined, "I just think it's better than sitting around here and doing nothing, or implementing your stupid plan!"

The sound of the Horus guards approaching brought all parties to an abrupt halt. Heru'ur's majestic form appearing in the shadows of the doorway, it's huge arc framing him perfectly.

"Daniel Jackson, you will accompany me in the destruction of the ships that threaten your world!" he stated. "Your friends are free to go."

Lt. Colonel Ross pulled the handgun from his jacket, moving slowly to get a position to open fire.

Daniel turned at Makepeace, a shrug. "I guess I'm going!" he said, a look of stunned detachment sweeping across his face. "And, um, so are you!"

Carter moved casually to block Ross's path. "Okay, we'll report back to the SGC and inform General Hammond," Makepeace responded, his eyes sliding across to Ross, a gesture with his hand to stand down.

Ross lowered the weapon carefully, still unseen by the Goa'uld system lord, nodding his accession at Makepeace.   Heru'ur turned, leading Jackson who followed slowly, looking around at his colleagues, another shrug.

"Well that's a switch!" Makepeace sighed. "Think Jackson was right?"

Carter regarded him, considering the thought. "Maybe sir, I guess we'll have to wait and see!"

"Alright, get your stuff, there's nothing else we can do here, let's move out," Makepeace ordered.

Part 3.3

Hathor stood beside the colonel on the Pel’tac, she maintained her closeness to him, knowing that the powerful mind control she now used to flood his thoughts would also require her presence, the new art she had learn from the Nucascians was indeed a powerful weapon, yet it had flaws, she knew if O'Neill's mind was allowed to wander, even for a moment, the effect would be reversed.

Her knowledge of humans was vast, their minds were weak, those of the male variety far easier to control with her beauty. She could sense his reticence, he held a key to unlock secrets that the best Goa'uld minds had failed to open, and she would use that, the opportunity to possess such power presenting itself at a most fortuitous time.  The system lords, learning of her rebirth, would have easily despatched her, now she had found a way to finally achieve the status she had held so long ago as the Queen of Ra, the most powerful Goa'uld that had ever lived. 

"My beloved, once we have despatched this minor irritant, perhaps we should consider our plans to overcome the system lords, your strength is indeed admirable, we should use this to claim our rightful place," she stated, her hands caressing his hair, stroking his face softly, her allure absolute. "With us to guide you, you will command the greatest armies the Goa'uld has ever known, and we shall be happy to please you, our Pharaoh!"

Jack regarded her closely an affectionate smile, descending across his face. "You know," he offered. "I can think of much better ways to spend time, and anyway." He broke off from the adoring smile he bathed her with. "There's plenty of time to do the whole universe domination thing, don't ya think?"

As he looked away, her eyes flashed anger, yet she remained in check, to reveal her thoughts to him too easily might break the spell she held him under, to even stray for a moment would release his mind.

"What ever pleases you," Hathor said, her fingers wrapping around his arm, her head laid against his chest. "But, we must be vigilant my lord, do you not believe, as I do, that we should perhaps deal first with Heru'ur?"

"No!" Jack's tone firm, his mind beginning to wander. Something wasn't right, he felt it, but she was so incredible, so strong, his desire to have her close to him permeating throughout his body. "He's an ally... and isn't he your son?" he questioned cynically, his eyes once more meeting hers, as she gazed up at him adoringly.

"You are correct, our Pharaoh, he is indeed our son, but he will challenge us, we must be ready to act first, we cannot allow such a challenge to be perceived as a sign of weakness," she insisted.

"Yeah, you may be right about that," he agreed.

"My lord!" Kalim announced. "The enemy approaches."

"It's Showtime!" Jack announced. "OK, let's kick some butt here!"

Hathor moved back, allowing him to command his Jaffa, curiously aroused by this most frustrating of humans. Twice she had held him in her grasp, only to be denied a victory, this time she intended to ensure his subservience. 

She listened as he ordered the attack, the ships being despatched one by one, almost a hundred motherships dwarfing the smaller vessels of the Guardians.  The now modified shields of the Goa'uld fleet oscillating at quicker frequencies to prevent their weapons penetrating it, the destruction of the Guardians fleet a simple, yet incredible sight, as the space around them glowed with the massive explosions, brief, yet exhilarating.

Jack stood back from the console, watching the spectacle, invigorated strangely by the power he possessed.

Hathor moved to his side once more. "A great victory, my Pharaoh," she gushed. Her hand wrapped in his, as they witnessed the disintegration of the final ship. "It was an honour to watch."

Jack squeezed her hand, aroused at her touch, rendered almost breathless by her presence. He let go, and moved away from her then, looking out into space, something just wasn't right, he knew this, yet he seemed completely unable to reconcile that thought with what he felt.

"Ya think?" he replied at length, sounding more like himself, his mind fighting to control the dizzy confusion that seemed to envelope his thoughts.

"We were most impressed," Hathor cooed. "It is indeed a pleasure to feel your power."

"Did we suffer any losses?" he asked Kalim, trying to keep his mind focused. The Jaffa immediately checked the fleet, shaking his head.

"No my lord, your ships are undamaged," he confirmed.

"Sweet, maybe we ought to go give 'H' a hand?" he suggested.

Hathor sensed his unease, once more employing her mind to overcome him, taking his hand into hers.

"Heru'ur will manage, we should allow him this small victory. It may well be his last," she stated, glancing up at O'Neill.

Jack considered it, Heru'ur had insisted upon the task, perhaps she was right he might consider the assistance to be interference, and such an insult would never be tolerated.

"In that case, we should probably mosey on back to base right?" he asserted, his right hand engulfing her wrist, pulling her to him, a devilish smile crossing his handsome features. "I've got a whole new plan!"

***********

"It is unwise to involve ourselves in such matters," Heru'ur contended, regarding Daniel with a suspicious eye. "Yet, she is most certainly not to be trusted!"

"Yeah, I know, but why are you telling me this?" Daniel asked. "I mean if you wanted her out of the way?"

"If O'Neill becomes dangerous to the Goa'uld, he will be killed," the system lord announced. "Chronos is already suspicious of this alliance. O'Neill will be most guarded, at her insistence, of the Goa'uld, he has already prevented my own Jaffa from dealing with the problem, but you!"

"Oh now hold on, are you saying you want me to kill Hathor?" Daniel asked, amazed at the logic behind it.

"You are perhaps the only one whom he will not guard against.” Heru’ur asserted. “His friend, and she would never perceive you as such a threat, it may be the only way!"

"This is insane, you've got armies of Jaffa, why can't you just take her out?" Daniel argued.

"If he protects her Daniel, he will be killed!" The Goa'uld explained.

"Oh great, and if I kill her and he's under her influence?" Jackson demanded. "Um, no thanks, there have to be other ways of killing her?"

Heru'ur turned toward Jackson now, seeming to grow in stature, his eyes glowing at the archaeologist. "Kree Tau'ri! I do not ask for this, I demand it!" he spat, the hatred that swept his face radiated toward Daniel like a flame.

"And if I refuse?" Jackson asked tentatively.

Heru'ur turned, taking a canopic jar from Nefir. "You will not like the alternative!" the Goa'uld replied, lifting the symbiote from the jar.

Daniel stared at the creature, his heart skipping a beat. "Then I guess I really don't have a choice, do I?" he said, his eyes narrowing toward the Goa’uld, closing then, as the smirk the creature returned toward him drew an angry response.

“You Daniel Jackson, will be that with which I defeat Hathor. And when I am finished with you, you will be a host!” the Goa’uld stated, the same arrogance in his tone that had prevailed on his face.

Daniel took a deep breath. He didn’t like where this was going!

Part 3.4

The view of this most curious part of space, from the Pel’tac, was stunning. O’Neill stared out there, into that empty void, littered with stars and planets, more than he’d ever seen in his own galaxy, through the telescope that sat lonely atop of his house back in Colorado. In that moment he wondered what the heck he was doing, however certain he’d been about his role to Jackson, he now felt like the smallest part of a much bigger equation.

Hathor’s gently traced her fingertips across his right cheek. “Our beloved?” she questioned. “Your thoughts are not with us?”

Jack moved his eyes across to catch a glimpse of that flame red hair, and those hypnotic eyes, the mistress of his thoughts for so much of that day, he’d barely had time to catch breath. Her touch sent shivers of expectant pleasure through his body, his eyes closing, allowing the pleasure absolute focus.

“I was just thinking,” he replied at length.

“About what would our Pharaoh think if not us?” she questioned. There could be no respite of his attention; she needed to ensure that his thoughts, however menial to her, were solely in her possession.

“Stuff!” he dismissed, turning away from the control console. His attention now back to the Goa’uld, a semblance of a smile forming on his lips. “It’s not important,” he added, his hand caressing her shoulder. “So what now?”

“We believe that to return to the planet of Heru’ur would greatly reduce our time together,” Hathor stated. “Our arms long to hold our beloved.”

Jack’s eyes sparkled then, alight with the desire that he’d allowed himself to recklessly swim in, his thoughts consumed with that basic compulsion to drown within the embrace of a woman he knew, deep down, that he could never trust. But it meant little, the danger of her control as intoxicating as the thought of finally realising the lust that bound him inextricably to her.

“Then our beloved is in agreement with us?” she asked, reading those hungry eyes as obviously as if she had heard him speak the words.

“Where?” His voice almost a whisper, as she came closer to him. The giddy feeling of a teenage boy, given that first opportunity, that first kiss.

“Our Pharaoh has his own armies, does he not possess a palace where we may be together, as one?” Hathor led him easily; the smile projected on her delicate features as much her own satisfaction at this certain conquest, as it was to lure O’Neill deeper into her web.

Seducing him would be a simple task. Keeping him away from those that could challenge her hold, another matter.  The temptation to kill him had all but passed, her intrigue to discover why he, a slave, had been able to forge such an alliance with Heru’ur almost overwhelming.

In the chambers where Jack had been forced to perform with a woman he truly loathed, he was freed of inhibitions, abandoning himself to the uncontrollable urges that swept through his mind, discarding the restraints that would normally have held him back, protected him.

Her power over him absolute, tumultuously accentuated through the most natural and incredible release of sustained passion he had ever felt.

Their bodies now locked together motionless, after finally succumbing to exhaustion. What had been an almost unyielding desire, was now sated.

Hathor felt relaxed, pleasurably so, the passion she had aroused in him unwittingly surged through her, intensified by almost two years of seclusion.

This was the only time she ever permitted the host a will of her own, reaping the exhilarating rewards from the chemicals her body released.

She had wanted to punish him, still angry for her defeat. It had after all been O'Neill who had almost ended her long existence, but that could wait, perhaps for a while, ultimately, given enough time she would no longer need to hold his mind captive, he would see her as all men eventually had, as his goddess!

Jack stroked her hair softly, looking into those incredible eyes, feeling the moment, the serenity of complete satisfaction; it had been a long time since he'd allowed himself to feel that impassioned. Her body felt so perfect in his arms, so giving, to embrace her felt like the most natural thing in the world.

Yet even in this most ecstatic state, almost drug like in its affects, he did not perceive the strong emotional bond of love.  

Staring into her eyes, Jack’s mind was vanquished by the most basic need of all, lust; the overwhelming, relentless passion that permeated through his being. She seemed to fit him perfectly; the fact that he had given himself so freely to a Goa’uld never crossed his thoughts for a moment.

He lifted himself from her, stretching out, Hathor moved into him, laying her head on his chest.

"Much better plan," he said, his voice almost a whisper as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her as close as he dared without crushing her delicate body.

"Your strength and prowess honour us, our Pharaoh," Hathor responded breathlessly. "We are indeed delirious," she sighed.

"We're not bad either!" Jack smiled, kissing her forehead softly.

"May we ask, does this joining please our lord?" she enquired, looking up at him.

"Oh yeah!" Jack replied. "Getting out of that damn armour, making love to an incredibly beautiful woman... pleased is kinda an understatement!"

"We then, are pleased too!" Hathor concluded, laying her head back onto his chest, a deep sigh pursing her lips. "We are intrigued at how you became so powerful within the Goa’uld. Might you tell us?"

"Well, that would be a long story," he mused.

She looked up at him once more, turning her body to face him, resting her arms on his chest, her delicate chin on her hands. "We would be honoured that our Pharaoh would share this, with us!"

Jack gazed into her eyes, affectionately kissing her nose. "Okay, it started with Nurti, she wanted a plaything."

Hathor's eyebrows rose, enlarging those already hypnotic eyes. "Such a curious word, we are unsure of it's meaning?"

"Um, kinda like this, you and me, but different. Her idea of romance was taking that whole girl power thing to excess!" Jack explained, putting his fingertips on Hathor's lips, as she was again about to question him. "So, I get to meet the in‑laws, 'H' being one of them... get my own snake." A wry smile. "Sorry, symbiote, and manage to get rid of him, turns out I was more annoying than he was," Jack quipped, enjoying his own humour which merely served to draw bemused regard from Hathor.

"Anyway, at which point I'd obviously proven to 'H' that the rumours about the Ancients downloading stuff into my head, gotta love 'em for that, was true, so he decides we should be allies, and since things weren't exactly going too well at home, here I am!" he concluded.

"Our Pharaoh is indeed wise," she cooed. "We are more enamoured of him since he has undoubtedly proven himself a match for us!"

O'Neill stared approvingly into her eyes. "It's kinda odd though, us, this whole getting together thing," he stated, clearly confused, yet strangely comfortable. "Kinda puts a whole new meaning into alliance!"

"We do not find it so, our Pharaoh was naturally drawn to the strongest, and most powerful mate, we, in turn recognise our equal!" she opined.

Jack's eyes closed, the smile that he'd graced her with, etched into his features. He was tired, he'd managed only a few hours a night since being reintegrated into Heru'ur's forces, but now, his body completely relaxed, his mind at ease, sleep came easily. 

Hathor watched him sleep, curiously tracing her fingers over his lips, around his eyes.

"Perhaps we will keep you as our mate," she whispered to him. "Our Pharaoh!"

**************

Kalim had maintained a vigil outside the chambers of O'Neill and his new queen.  The servants also waited, pleased to finally have a chance to serve this new god, whom the Jaffa described as 'a mighty conqueror'.  Within the Goa'uld society, many now knew of his slaying Apophis, and Nurti, with his alliance to Heru'ur, another god whom he had spared. 

Provus, the Jaffa second only in command to Kalim, approached quickly. "Heru'ur demands to speak with our lord," he informed O'Neill's first prime.

"You did not tell him O'Neill was sleeping?" Kalim asked, looking slightly irritated at the intrusion. He moved to the door and opened it slowly. "He sleeps!" he announced.

"Tell my lord Heru'ur that O'Neill sleeps!"

"But Kalim," the Jaffa protested.

"Then I will do it myself. Remain here until I return," Kalim snapped, approaching the Goa'uld long-range communication device, without the fear or trepidation that clearly seemed to deter Provus.

"My lord O'Neill sleeps, he will not be woken," he told the image of the system lord, who frowned heavily.

"Kree! Jaffa, shel kol, O'Neill!" His voice boomed.

Kalim bowed his head. "I will inform my lord of your wish to speak to him when he arises, Heru'ur," he replied.

The communication device terminated. The System Lord spun around in anger, looking at Daniel.

"Sleeping?" Jackson asked dubiously, clearly suspecting that this activity might not be exactly what the colonel was doing!

"Already she controls him!" Heru'ur snapped.

"Well I'd probably have to agree with you there," Daniel opined, a hesitant tone. "So, um, you don't expect me to go there, do you?"

The Goa'uld regarded him. "This is where she will feel safe, she would not expect such an attack, you will go to her, and see that you do not fail me!" he warned.

Daniel looked at him apprehensively. "I'll really try not to," he said, the image of the symbiote he had been threatened with embedded in his mind.

***********

The wormhole disengaged behind them. Carter threw her kit down, as Hammond, flanked by Major Davis, approached.

"Colonel Makepeace, where is Dr. Jackson and Colonel O'Neill?" he asked.

Makepeace frowned. "Well sir, that's a good question. Last time I saw Jack, he was with Hathor sir, and Daniel? He had to go with Heru'ur to destroy the alien craft that were heading toward Earth," he replied wearily.

"We know about the ships, Colonel. Hathor?" Hammond exclaimed. "Back up a minute Colonel, you did say Hathor?"

Makepeace raised his eyebrows, a heavy sigh. "That's right sir, it seems she's managed to find herself away of screwing with Jack's mind!"

"Or something," Lt. Colonel Ross muttered.

"Alright, debrief in one hour, this I've got to hear!" Hammond declared.

Samantha Carter looked around at the Lt. Colonel, a bitter expression etched into her features. 

“I’d say we have a problem sir,” she offered, looking away from Hammond, collecting her thoughts.

“We can do this in the de-brief Major,” Hammond replied. “Now, get yourselves cleaned up.”

“Yes sir,” Carter replied, a dubious look toward Makepeace. “Maybe I should have let Ross shoot her!”

“Or Jack?” Makepeace offered. “I figure he might need someone to put him out of his misery!”

Carter smiled. “He does seem to be making a habit of choosing the wrong women sir,” she replied, realising that Makepeace had intended brevity, and rising to that.

“Puts a whole new angle on dangerous women!” he agreed.

************

Kalim led Daniel through the recesses of Nurti's palace, down into the baths, where the archaeologist found the colonel and his new queen immersed in a huge sunken bath.

"Oh!" he remarked shyly. "Um, maybe I should wait out side?"

"Daniel?" Jack's voice.

"Yeah, I'll wait out here," he called back.

"Hey relax, she's decent!" O'Neill informed him.

"Well that's a matter of opinion," Daniel uttered as he approached the bizarre couple.

"I thought you'd gone back to Earth?" Jack said. "Hammond send you on another mission?"

"Um, no, no, I never left actually, Heru'ur wanted me to witness the destruction of the Guardian ships headed for Earth," Jackson explained, sitting as far away as he could without hindering his ability to communicate with the colonel.

Two servants immediately moved forward as Hathor clicked her fingers, behind the large towels she stood, regarding Jackson coyly, turning to O'Neill, her confidence in her ability to control him, becoming stronger.

"We will leave our Pharaoh, with his permission?" she asked, now wrapped in a silken robe.

Jack smiled at her fondly, a warm affection radiating, emanating from his eyes. One that the Jackson couldn’t fail to see, adding to his troubled thoughts, which were, given the depth of his concerns, beginning to become overwhelming.

"Yeah, okay, don't go too far, I've got a feeling it's not safe!" Jack told her, his friend’s thoughts transparent to him.

Daniel looked away, trying to think of anything else but what Heru'ur had sent him there to do, but it was a losing battle, he'd forgotten that O'Neill could read his mind, and his attempts to disguise it, were a little too late.

"We shall never be far from the side of our Pharaoh," Hathor cooed softly.

Jack watched her leave, attended by four servants. He turned to Jackson, shaking his head.

" 'H' sent you to kill Hathor?" he charged, a look of disdain sweeping his face.

"Jack, look, I really didn't have any other choice," the archaeologist began to explain. "Unless you count getting my own symbiote. I was going to tell you, ask for your help."

O'Neill nodded, climbing from the bath and wrapping a towel around his waist. "Yeah, I know you were Daniel, not exactly something you could hide right?"

"Um, no it seems not," Jackson lamented. "So, what the hell are you doing?"

"Okay," Jack said at length. "I know this must seem a little odd,"

"A little?  Jack, even Heru'ur's worked out she has some kind of mind control thing going on here," Daniel told him, “I’d say I’m surprised, but I’m really not.”

"Hey! I admit it's a little sudden, but." He began to dress in another suit of Goa'uld armour that had been laid out for him.

"A little sudden," Daniel echoed. "Um, how about disgusting, inept, stupid, totally disgusting and um, obvious that she has you under some form of Goa'uld technology.  Jack, will you please just listen to yourself?" 

"What's obvious Daniel?  I mean come on, it's not like she's trying anything, she's just well, given herself to me," Jack declared, looking distinctly proud of the fact.

Jackson stunned into silence, regarded the colonel with complete astonishment.

"Okay," he replied. "I can see this is going nowhere!” A vexed look in those deep blue eyes. “Jack, you’re... copulating with a Goa’uld,” he announced. “I’m sorry but there’s no other way to put that delicately.”

“Daniel, come on,” Jack retorted. “You know how incredible she is, you of all people,” O’Neill charged.

“Um, yes, right. I know exactly how incredibly easy it was for her to control my mind, and now it seems she’s found a way to control yours... or something!” he answered, looking at the colonel dubiously.

“That’s just ridiculous!” Jack snapped. “I’m doing what I want to do here, okay, she’s, well I,” he stared at Jackson, unable to express the feelings because he really didn’t know what he was trying to say.

Daniel looked at him expectantly. “You don’t know do you?” he challenged. “Because it’s not your own will you’re expressing.”

O’Neill’s askant repose guardedly fell upon his friend. “Well, ah, no!” he concluded.

“Great!  So, what are we going to do about Heru'ur?" Jackson enquired.

Jack shrugged. "H? Hey you leave him to me, I mean what the hell does he think he's playing at?" he remonstrated. "I find a woman, a Goa'uld, totally in keeping with this whole damn alliance thing, and he wants to kill her?"

Daniel's eyebrows had steadily climbed up his forehead as this conversation had progressed to new heights of insanity, now at the pinnacle, his eyes wide and fixed on the colonel.

"You've really got it bad huh?" he asked, reticence permeating his words. "Jack, I don't know what she's done to you, but you can't see anything else can you?"

"Daniel will you just..."

"Don't tell me to relax Jack, please! Why don't you realise that she's using something to control you...” His eyes narrowed then as he realised the futility of that question. “And that was probably a stupid thing to say!" Daniel remarked shaking his head, removing his glasses. "Oh I'm getting a headache!"

Jack regarded him, obviously oblivious to whatever Jackson said. "Listen, don't worry about it, I'm not gonna let 'H' do anything to you, I'll talk to him, square this whole thing away!" he intoned, a curious expression sweeping his face. "You sure you're not just a little jealous?" he asked.

Jackson looked through his fingers, which had been rubbing his temple. "What?" The incredulous tone and expression that prevailed over him was almost comical.

"You know what I'm saying, she's, well, you know?" O'Neill offered, the implication obvious.

Jackson's frustration in his inability to communicate his concerns built up inside him, he pushed his glasses firmly into place.

"Jack, for crying out loud!" he remonstrated, pausing, astounded shaking his head.

"Oh god, this is bad," he complained. "I'm starting to sound like you!"

"Yeah, but without the attitude!" Jack responded, as amazed as Jackson was at hearing the retort so roundly delivered.

"I just wish I could get you to listen!" Daniel opined. "Find a way through whatever mind control..."

"'D'! I'm immune to Nishta, and that other stuff, and besides, what the hell is wrong with this? I like her!" Jack vociferated. "She's... hot!" Finally emphatically.

"Oh Jack, so many things," the archaeologist groaned, his head dropped into his hands as he sat back down with a thud.

O'Neill bemused, sitting next to him. "Danny boy, you need to relax, all this worrying," he said softly, ruffling Jackson's hair.

*************

"Just how in the hell did Hathor get back into the equation?" Hammond demanded.

Carter shrugged. "The colonel came and told us that he and the other system lords were going after her sir, apparently she'd amassed an army and was about to launch some kind of assault on their territory," she explained. "When the colonel came back sir, he had her with him, and he seemed... besotted."

"Besotted? I thought that he was immune to whatever substance she used before?"

Hammond enquired, looking from one to the other.

"I can't explain it sir," Carter replied. "She must have found something else, and whatever it is, it's worse than the last time, much worse!"

"Since it would have been impossible to take her out," Makepeace stated, "and on the demand that we leave, made by Heru'ur, we felt it best to report back here, and come up with a new plan."

"A new plan?" Hammond repeated. "What about Dr. Jackson? Did Heru'ur indicate that he'd be returned on completion of this mission?"

"No sir, he just demanded that Daniel go with him and basically sent us packing," Carter responded.

"Dr. Jackson seemed to think that Heru'ur wouldn't be happy with this turn of events either sir, he insisted on trying to speak with the Goa'uld before he showed up,"

Makepeace said. "On a personal note sir, I'm given to thinking that this might have been the reason the Goa'uld wanted Jackson along. I guess he figures, like Jackson did that he knows Colonel O'Neill well enough to possibly provide some insight on the problem!"

"Thank you Colonel," Hammond said, a heavy sigh punctuating the response. "So, we have a far worse situation on our hands. If Hathor can control the colonel's mind then we have to assume that at some point, she's going to attempt to colonize Earth. Any thoughts or suggestions?" he asked.

"We could ask for help from the Tok'ra sir?" Carter offered. "They've still got operatives on the inside?"

"General Hammond, may I make a suggestion?" Teal'c asked.

"Go ahead Teal'c," the General encouraged.

"It is likely that Heru'ur and the other system lords will fear Hathor far more than any other Goa'uld, since she had previously ruled over them with Ra. I believe that if he can not be persuaded to turn against her, Colonel O'Neill himself will be in great danger."

"Go on Teal'c, we're listening," Hammond said.

"I still possess the armour of the Horus guard, and given the opportunity I feel I would be able to assist the Tok'ra in freeing both Daniel Jackson, and Colonel O'Neill from the Goa'uld," he stated confidently.

Hammond regarded him, nodding thoughtfully. "Alright Teal'c, I concur, but, this all depends on the Tok'ra," he stated. "Major Carter, contact them, let's see what they can come up with. If Colonel O'Neill isn't exactly himself, then I'm sure they'll feel it worth their while to assist us!"

"Sir with your permission?" Makepeace asked. Hammond's gestured, offering him the ability to speak freely. "I'd like to accompany Teal'c on any mission sir, I saw Serpent guards in O'Neill's command, and since we have a uniform going spare, I'd like to be involved," he suggested, looking across at the approving features of the Jaffa.

"Understood colonel, and appreciated, thank you! Major, perhaps Dr. Fraiser might have some suggestions on whatever this new substance might be that Hathor is using on the colonel," Hammond said.  "Look into that would you? Dismissed!"

************

The Goa'uld long-range communication device activated. Heru'ur appeared before

O'Neill. "Kel shak O'Neill," he greeted.

"Yeah, whatever, what's with the killing my queen plan?" Jack demanded immediately. "I mean, Daniel?”

Heru'ur regarded him with caution. "We must meet and speak of this privately, O'Neill, your decision is erroneous!"

"Look, there's nothing to talk about here. Leave Hathor to me, she's my choice, do you get that?" Jack demanded.

The Goa'uld system lord glowered furiously, his eyes glowing. "You forget it is I, and I alone, that has given you this opportunity," he snapped. "Do not make the mistake of believing your power too strong, or that you have control of Hathor, she is my creator and I am in a better position to judge her treachery!"

"Alright, sorry about the whole mum deal, but look, I'm keeping an eye on her, she's taken care of,” Jack insisted. “And what’s with the Daniel, thing?”

“You leave me with little choice,” Heru’ur replied cautiously.

“Threatening to give him his own snake, I thought we’d agreed to leave Earth, Daniel, that whole deal, out of the damn picture?” A quizzical expression masked his features. “Look I'll come talk to you, just not today, you've trusted me this far, don't back out on me now!" he stressed.

"As you say O'Neill, so far I have placed my trust in you, however, if she is given any opportunity at all, she will prove to be your undoing!" Heru'ur asserted. The device was dormant once more.

Jack took a deep breath, turning around and looking at Kalim. "Listen, it seems to be the general consensus around here that I'm not exactly myself. What do you think?" he asked, regarding the Jaffa closely, no longer constrained by the influence of Hathor's control.

"It is true that you have certainly changed my lord, your queen appears to have made you less willing to hear reason," he responded.

"Okay, so you think she's controlling me right?" Jack asked.

Kalim looked down. "It is not my place to judge you my lord," he replied.

"So, yes?" Jack probed, already beginning to realise that he wasn’t exactly functioning like himself. "Yeah, I think you’re right," he opined, without waiting for the Jaffa to give any indication of his thoughts either way. "Maybe?” he cautiously added. “Daniel thinks the same thing, so I guess, maybe, well, you could be right, right?”

The Jaffa looked at him, confounded by O’Neill reasoning, that neither seemed to ask anything of him, nor make any kind of sense.

“Yes my lord,” he replied.

“Yeah,” Jack repeated. “So, about time to play her at her own game then hah?"

Kalim smiled sheepishly. "Yes my lord!" he affirmed.

*************

Jacob Carter and Martouf had arrived over twenty minutes earlier, and heard the latest developments from Colonel Makepeace, briefed as quickly as possible. In the seclusion of Carter's lab, they gathered to discuss the possible options.

"Okay, let's just say we could get you and Teal'c onto Heru'ur's planet," Jacob theorised, "how does that help? Without some idea of what we're trying to do, complicated by the appearance of Hathor, I'd say it just got fifty times harder to get at Colonel O'Neill, and God only knows what Heru'ur's done with Dr. Jackson," he continued, rubbing his hand thoughtfully on his chin. "You think Jack knows he's even there?"

"That's hard to say," Makepeace replied, looking across at Sam.

"Well, I guess it depends on whether Heru'ur is as intent on keeping his alliance with the Colonel or not Dad, we were hoping that your people on the inside might be able to tell us that?" she told him.

"Our operatives have been kept extremely secluded from the Colonel," Martouf imparted. "Most of his contact with Heru'ur himself has been reported, but I believe Daniel Jackson is correct, Heru'ur has gone to a lot of trouble to ensure that Colonel O'Neill is not only accepted at the rank of system lord, but that he has a degree of freedom."

"Kinda makes you wonder why Jack hasn't just escaped and come back?" Makepeace questioned.

"He is in a far better position, although at greater danger to himself, to influence the fortunes of Earth where he is frankly," Jacob asserted. "I think he knows that, but it's Hathor that has me worried."

"Dad?" Carter queried. "We know she's dangerous."

"Dangerous is putting it mildly Sam!" Jacob corrected, lowering his head. "She has been responsible for more destruction than most of the Goa'uld put together," Selmak stated. "Her personnel count, not only of humans, and other species, is endless.  It was only Ra himself who managed to confine her, and since no other Goa'uld possesses his kind of power, she could sweep through this Galaxy like a plague!"

"She's got some pretty heavy history then, which is going to put us, as well as the Colonel and Daniel, at risk right?" Sam asked, trying to be certain of what she believed the Tok'ra was saying.

Martouf leant forward. "Let me quantify this, Hathor is the oldest of the Goa'uld currently in existence, she has always been one of the most dangerous and power seeking, since she once ruled over the entire realm, alongside Ra - she will be keen to regain this position, which will mean conquering first any opposition within the Goa'uld, and then to once again begin the domination and conquest of the planets that were once under her rule," he stated. "She above all others is feared and loathed amongst the system lords, if Heru'ur wishes to dispose of her, he will put himself, and possibly Colonel O'Neill in great danger!"

Carter and Makepeace both took huge gulps of air. "Well it gets better and better!" Makepeace opined.

"So how do we proceed then? I mean you've made it pretty obvious that we can't just sit by and do nothing?" Carter enquired.

"Well," Jacob responded. "I'd have to say that getting Teal'c, and the colonel here, in covertly might be a promising idea...at least when we're given an opportunity to act they'll be in situ!"

"Yeah, but General Hammond's never going to approve a plan like that, we've got to give him something more concrete!" Makepeace argued.

"Colonel without knowing what exactly it is that we're up against here, how can you or George expect us to come up with a plan?" Jacob asked.

Makepeace shrugged. "Sir, I have no idea," he replied.

**********

"Our Pharaoh," Hathor greeted, as O'Neill entered the chambers where she lay, being waited on by many servants, all women, who bowed low before him, the colonel quickly ushered them away.

"Ah, food, and how is our queen?" Jack asked, consciously searching for protection from the Ancients download, and finding it difficult to access.

"We are happy now that we see our Pharaoh honours us with his presence," she replied.

"Sweet," he retorted, his eyebrows flicking momentarily to his forehead, a smile permeating his features. "I'm ravenous!"

"Our Pharaoh is amused?" she enquired.

"We're kinda amused, but actually, I wanted to talk to you about this whole relationship thing, you being my queen and all!" he said, sitting down close to her.

"Proceed, we would very much like to hear this," she acknowledged.

"Great! Well, since we, are our queen." Jack's deliberate paraphrasing, a masked sarcasm. "We, would like to consider the idea of having children," he stated.

Hathor smiled sweetly. "We have the code, our Pharaoh, and shall be happy to oblige," she replied.

"Ah, no, not symbiotes. I'm talking about a child, a kid, a human child here... soon!" Jack explained, taking a bite from the green fruit he'd become accustomed to.

Hathor's eyes widened. "We would not be able to provide such a child," she protested.

"Oh," Jack’s tone deliberately facetious.  "Well, why not? I mean, it's all part of this whole, deal right? The us, together thing?”

"No!" she snapped, sitting up abruptly, her eyes glowing sharply.

"No? Are you refusing your Pharaoh?" the colonel’s tone now becoming deeper, taking the ascendancy that he possessed.

Her expression changed immediately, reaching out and stroking his face. "We would never challenge our Pharaoh," she conceded, her mind attempting to focus control on his.

"Sweet, I'd like kids, lots of them!" he informed her, a devious smile crossing his eyes. "And, I'm thinking we should probably have like a wedding, or something, you know, solidify this bond?"

Hathor's face forced a smile. "We are here to please our Pharaoh," she confirmed. "Our body is our lord’s altar."

Jack smiled at her. "Great, I've got to go talk to Heru'ur, apparently he's not entirely happy with my choice of queen," he told her.

"We are in danger? Should our Pharaoh not destroy this challenge?" she enquired, careful not to be too insistent.

"Nope, see the way I figure this, he can’t challenge you if you’re mine, and the only way to convince him of that, that you don’t have some devious plot working in that pretty head of yours, is for you, to act, well, like a wife!” Jack insisted, beginning to enjoy the uncomfortable expression that sat on the face of a woman he couldn’t resist.

“He will not accept this,” she argued.

“Um, yes he will, see we have an understanding, so I’m gonna go talk to him now," Jack retorted. "I'll leave Kalim to protect you and Daniel, I'm sure he's missed you just as much as I have!"

Hathor watched him leave, smiling sweetly as he glanced back over his shoulder.  She threw the trays of food from the table.  She had no ribbon device, her mind control would not work on a Jaffa; she was trapped.  Kalim entered the chambers.

"You will wait outside," she demanded.

"My queen, I apologise, however my lord O'Neill has bid me to ensure your safety, I must not leave your side!" he informed her.

Hathor glowered at him, snapping at the servants to clean up the mess she had made in her anger.

**********

"Hey Daniel," Jack called out, finding Jackson in the familiar surroundings of the gardens in which they had spent so much time weeks earlier.

"Jack, how's your queen?" he mocked, still seething from their earlier encounter.

"Oh she's throwing food around right now," the colonel laughed. "She's not a happy camper!"

"Um, why?" Jackson asked regarding the colonel curiously, there seemed to be a sparkle of the old Jack O’Neill glowing in there somewhere.

"Oh, I worked out what she's been doing, and you were right, but I just clipped her wings, and she's really not liking it right now!" the colonel responded, a devilish smile.

"What did you do?" Jackson asked.

"Oh I told her I wanted a kid," Jack told him flippantly.

"What?" Jackson exclaimed. "Jack you didn't?"

O'Neill laughed to himself. "Oh yeah, I did," he replied, sitting next to Jackson.

Jackson grinned broadly. "That's um, quick thinking, did she agree?"

"Daniel, I'm her Pharaoh, 'we' didn't have a choice!" O'Neill stated.

"Oh I bet she loved that!" Daniel concurred. “But, have you really thought this through, I mean, a kid?”

"Ah, yeah, hence the redistribution of the food," Jack told him. "Which kinda means that I've got a big responsibility here, and yeah, I know exactly what that means Daniel!"

"Um, not to sound like you again, but ya think?" Daniel replied shaking his head. "Jack, this is going to be a little intense, I mean if you do... that, and she does as you ask, you're obligated right? So when do you come home?"

Jack smiled, an empty smile. "Daniel, I don't know, maybe never, maybe!" he stated.

Jackson's face no longer registered any kind of humour; the serious repercussions of that statement hit him.

"That's a responsibility!" he agreed.

"Hey! Look on the bright side, I'm gonna be a dad!" Jack said, a wry smile crossing his face, then a curious blank stare. “Um, okay, maybe that was a bit rash!” he intoned.

Daniel frowned. “A bit?”

O’Neill shrugged. He still couldn’t see past what she was, only the feeling of her touch, her eyes, her lips filling his mind. "Hey! Snake aside, I could do worse right?" Daniel shook his head slowly. "No, you could do better, Jack, so much better!" he responded.

"Yeah, look, I know this whole thing is a little hard to get used to, but I think this is home Daniel, and maybe you should go back, and tell them I'm not coming back!" Jack told him a sombre tone creeping into his voice.

"Jack, I don't accept that, I can't," the archaeologist contested. "This can't be it?"

Jack smiled at him. "Daniel, it's never it," he said. "Just a different way of dealing with the problem."

"So you really want to give up Earth? Give up your life there?" Daniel asked, the concern, the sadness he felt showing on his face.

"You know, if you'd asked me that a couple of days ago, maybe not, maybe there was something to go home for, but Hammond, the whole damn question about my loyalty? I dunno Daniel, what’s there?" he asked, the expression that now adorned his features clearly wanted Jackson to have an answer.

Daniel sighed heavily. “Are you asking me? Or telling me?” he enquired. “Because if that was a serious question Jack, I think you already know the answer!”

“Maybe, but what about Hathor?” O’Neill’s eyes seemed to soften when he mentioned her name.

"What? Jack she's a Goa'uld! You hate the Goa'uld, what changed?" Daniel demanded.

"I have Daniel. You seem to forget how much time I've spent here, she's dangerous, but she's also invaluable. Who’s a better source of the Goa'uld than she is?" O'Neill argued.

"Okay, I'm officially worried now, you mean it don't you?" Jackson asked.

"Oh yeah!” There was something in his voice, in his eyes then, that told Daniel precisely that. “This whole experience has changed a lot, maybe I didn’t get it at first, I missed the whole point. But I’m getting it now.”

“Oh, that’s um, good, because I really wish I was!” Jackson retorted, shaking his head, a heavy sigh escaping his lips.

“Daniel, just tell Hammond I'm on your side, and tell him I don't need rescuing, I'm where I need to be," Jack maintained.

"Jack you couldn’t have changed that drastically? Something isn’t right here!" Daniel pointed out honestly.

O'Neill looked away, seriously considering the question. Jackson was right, of course, he’d changed drastically and he knew it. 

"A lot’s happened wouldn’t you say?" he stated. "And, look around Daniel, it’s not so bad here?"

Jackson looked at him seriously. "You're kidding right?" Incredulously.

"Hey, you know how I love a joke and a laugh, but no, this time I'm serious," he said, avoiding Jackson’s intense regard.

“I don’t buy this Jack, it’s not you, I’m not hearing Jack O’Neill in there anywhere,” he replied.

“Daniel, for God’s sake!” Jack snapped, his hands on his friend’s shoulders. “Just stop okay? I’ll be fine, you’ll be fine!”

Daniel tried for a smile, but he felt torn in two. Safety was nice, losing his friend?

“No Jack, you’ll be used, and when you’re no use, you’ll be dead!”

O’Neill stared into his friends eyes. “Then maybe that’s okay too!”

 Part 3.5

"It's an SG1 code sir," Sergeant Davis told Hammond as the Stargate activated.

"All defence teams standby. Open the iris, Sergeant," Hammond ordered.

Carter just made it into the control room in time to hear the technician announce the code, Martouf and Jacob close behind her.

"Daniel?" she asked.

"We don't know yet Major, let's hope so," Hammond responded.

Daniel Jackson walked slowly through the event horizon, the guns of the SF’s trained on him. "It's okay, I'm safe... I think!" he stated, referring to the fact that he believed himself free of interference.

"Daniel? Are you okay?" Sam asked, as she appeared in the embarkation room.

"I'm fine Sam, I've um, got news!" he said, a dire tone to his voice, the apathy on his face presented an immediate omen to Carter of what was to follow.

"Oh, that sounds..."

"Ominous?" Jackson offered, an empty smile. "It is."

"Yeah," Carter agreed. "That was what I was going to say!"

"Welcome back Dr. Jackson," Hammond greeted as Daniel climbed the stairs into the control room.

"Well that's a matter for conjecture!" he opined, the serious expression on his face wiped the smile effectively from Hammond's.

"Okay Daniel, what's up?" Sam asked, unable to wait any longer.

Jackson stared at her. "You're probably not going to want to hear this!" he opined.

"Oh God!" Carter muttered her features suddenly distraught. "Is Colonel O'Neill alright?"

"That would about cover it!" Daniel suggested. "And a few curse words which I don't exactly feel at liberty to use, present company excepted.”

"Dr. Jackson, would you mind telling me exactly what you're talking about?" Hammond demanded.

"Jack, sir, he's not coming back," Daniel imparted.

"What?" Carter almost jumped down his throat.

"He said to tell you, he's much better off where he is, he's got a handle on the whole Hathor thing now. He plans to keep her at bay with the easiest possible method, one he has the power to demand given his present circumstances and position," Jackson continued.

"Which is?" Hammond asked.

”He's um, oh how do I put this, going to start a family with her!" Daniel stated the reticence in his tone matching the apprehension in his eyes. He allowed that to sink in. 

"Of course we know that whilst she's carrying a human child, she's unable to present as a Goa'uld, or she'll miscarry. Which isn't exactly the option I would have considered, but Jack obviously has his reasons!"

Jacob and Martouf looked at one another curiously. "That's extreme!" Jacob noted.

"What?" Hammond snapped loudly, the amazement on his face mirrored by that of Carter. "Is he out of his mind?"

"Well ordinarily I'd probably have said yes," Daniel agreed at length, beginning to walk up to the briefing room, following Hammond. " But, I think he's very much in control of it actually!"

They sat around the briefing table. Carter stunned into silence, whilst Jacob and Martouf merely listened intently.

"Dr. Jackson, he's starting a family? With a Goa'uld and you think he's in charge of his senses?" Hammond enquired, completely shocked by what he was hearing.

"As bizarre as that sounds, yes I do. He's, um, different, changed I guess, and given the recent events it's hardly that surprising." Jackson opined.  "I think he's resigned himself to his current situation General, and he thinks that if he tried to come back, that the Goa'uld would resist it, and I think he’s right."

"Daniel may be right about that George," Jacob interrupted. "Hathor's subservience would strengthen his position amongst the Goa'uld, she's probably one of the most feared among them, as to whether the colonel is under her influence, I'd say not, as he's forcing her to do something she wouldn't normally agree to under any circumstances."

"So why would she agree to it now?" Hammond enquired.

"She doesn't have a choice, since Jack obviously captured her in battle, she's forced to serve him. She knows if she refuses, the alternative might be death!" Jacob concluded.

"But that doesn't explain why the colonel would take such a course of action?" Hammond argued. "Why doesn't he just kill her?"

"I don't know," Jacob responded. "Daniel?"

Jackson looked at Jacob clearly as bewildered by the choice as Hammond appeared to be.

"I'm not exactly sure either actually," Daniel seemed vague now, intentionally so. "She is um, extremely beautiful, I mean the host of course!" he added.

The bemused looks on the faces of the three men almost as if they were contemplating the fact.

"Daniel, she's a Goa'uld!" Carter asserted. "I just don't get why Colonel O'Neill, in his right mind, would want to go anywhere near her!"

"Well I guess you had to be there," Jackson retorted, the image of seeing the pair in that huge sunken bath springing easily to mind. “Jack’s, well he seems to be a little besotted, and I don’t think it’s the mind control, but maybe because of it, I’m not sure.” Daniel admitted.

"I'd better inform the Pentagon of this latest development, I don't quite know what I'm going to say. But," Hammond told them, "I'll think of something!"

"In the meantime George, Martouf will go back and see if we have any intelligence," Jacob stated.

Daniel stood up. "With your permission General, I'd like to take a shower and get some sleep," he said.

"Granted Dr. Jackson, dismissed."

"Daniel?" Jackson turned, looking at Carter, her features drawn and distraught, her tone soft, imploring. "Are you sure?"

Jackson looked away, he felt a deep sense of sympathy; he knew she considered the colonel a friend, probably every bit as much as he did, in their different ways, but recently he'd sensed that it was a little more than that.

"Sam, I'm sorry," his tone laced with empathy. "But it's his choice.  He um, told me he knew she'd been controlling him, which I guess could have been her controlling him right?  But I really don't think it was, he just thinks he belongs there right now, who knows, maybe he's right."

Carter shook her head.  "I just can't accept it Daniel, not the colonel, and not with her!" she asserted. 

"I know, after the whole thing with Nurti, I thought that would be the last place he'd turn," Daniel replied.

"Turn?" she asked.

"You know, when Jack and I first went through the gate to Abydos, after I'd been there a while, I couldn't even conceive of leaving, it was almost like I'd found a part of me that had been missing, maybe that's what Jack feels now, like he's finally found a place to make a difference." His attempted explanation seemed to merely add to her pain. "But I came back, and who knows, maybe he will too," he added quickly, a second effort that perhaps offered more hope than the first. "And I really tried to talk him out of it, I really did, but..."

Carter's eyebrows shot up. "He's Colonel O'Neill right, stubborn and unyielding!" she remarked, bringing her feelings into check. "I've really got some stuff to do, I'll…"

"Yes um, me too!" Jackson said watching her disappear down the steps. "I'd better report to the infirmary, I've spent so little time here, I almost forgot!" he lamented.

***********

Heru'ur listened intently to O'Neill inform him of his plan, amused by this most cunning and obvious method of ensuring he kept Hathor in check.

"You are sure your will is your own?" he asked cautiously.

"Yep, it's just me in here!" Jack told him.

"Since she no longer controls your mind, why not simply dispose of her," the Goa'uld system lord enquired.

"Hey, H, I'm a guy, she's well, it's a human thing, you'll just have to trust me on that. Gets a little lonely here!" O'Neill explained, unsure if that explanation was indeed the reason he had chosen to keep her alive, yet finding it the most feasible, and readily available excuse to offer the system lord.

"An interesting choice, O'Neill." Heru'ur observed.

The colonel shrugged. "Not too many options!" Jack replied.

"Very well, this is acceptable. She must be watched at all times O'Neill, and no Goa'uld technology afforded her!"

"Okay, well since you're happy, and I'm." He shook his head. "Trying to do this whole taming of the snake thing, I'll go... do... that," Jack told him, looking decidedly apprehensive suddenly. 

His opinion hadn't changed. He still loathed the Goa'uld and what they stood for, but somehow, he found the thought of killing her almost abhorrent, and although the very nature of what it meant vexed him, second guessing himself clearly wasn't an option. He smiled to himself, 'way to go Jack!' He thought, regarding the image of Heru'ur on the device before him. "I guess I'll catch ya later!" he told him.

"Indeed," Heru'ur responded terminating their link. "Shrewd and cunning!" he said to himself. "And now, bound to this existence!"

************

"We have decided that this plan is a foolish one," Hathor told him as he'd entered their chambers. "Our body is sacred!" Her abstinence in the matter underlined by her posture.

Jack shook his head, striding across the room menacingly, crowding the Goa'uld queen, and deliberately imposing his presence upon her.

"Hathor, we don't discuss this, you... we." He gestured towards her, eyes sweeping heavenward. "Do as we are told!" he snapped.

"But would we not be of more use to our Pharaoh as we are?" she contested, trying everything she knew, to escape this completely distasteful predicament.

"Nope, we would try this whole mind games thing, which is just not gonna happen!" Jack asserted.

He sat next to her, placing his hand on hers in an attempt at reason. "Now look, the only way I can keep you from being a target for the Goa'uld who want you dead, for some reason, I can't imagine why!" he mused. "Is to make an honest woman, snake, whatever, out of you! Which I grant you is probably asking a little too much of either of us, but well there it is!"

"We must protest," Hathor contested. "We are unable to see our lord for.... how long is a human child in the womb?"

"We usually do! And it’s nine months!" Jack told her, a heavy sigh. "Okay, look, I realise this is all a little sudden, and I'm probably completely insane for even giving a damn, but it's the only thing I could think of to keep you alive!" he insisted.

"We do not need the sanction of our Pharaoh for life!"

"Well here's a little news for you, if you don't, then maybe H, is right! Maybe I should just turn you over to Chronos, and let him kill you," he concluded, clearly becoming frustrated with a debate he understood little of himself. He looked at her, eyebrows raised, unrelenting.  "Decision?"

Hathor's regard of him was doleful. "We are not pleased, our Pharaoh, we are a goddess," she retorted, her eyes filled with a haughty anger that almost brought a smile to O'Neill's face, dismay permeating instead as he wondered why he might consider her so attractive at that point!

"We, in case you forgot, lost! Which means you do as you're told," the colonel snapped. "And if you consider the alternatives, death, that whole being dead thing?"

"You are a slave!" she spat, her eyes glowing at him now, like a tigress trapped by a poacher, causing him to pause momentarily and marvel at her allure, closing his eyes and trying to focus.

"Um, no, that would be you right now," he retorted a smirk on his face.  "And my, don't we get fractious when we can't have our own way!"

Hathor stood up, turning and facing him. "We despise you, why would you do this for us?" she questioned, beginning to realise that what he said was true. "We would kill you given the chance!"

"Yeah I'm getting that, and I'm not exactly in love with this whole snake thing either!" Jack retorted. "But, since you ask, I really don't know...?" he responded. "But we're both kinda stuck with this mess and, I'd really prefer not to do the whole killing thing again. Is this so bad?"

The Goa'uld regarded him curiously. "You are so weak, yet in such a position of strength," she said, her voice almost softening. "We, are not happy, yet it seems you have left us with little choice in the matter. We will therefore do as you ask."

Jack took a deep breath, he'd insisted on her value to Daniel, tried to reason that he was somehow making a noble stand, but when it really came down to asking those searching questions of himself, the answers made no sense.

"So I suppose you know the term Kree, right?" he asked, smiling at her, a little nervous suddenly, fascinated by her every move.

"You mock us, our lord," she replied. "We know very well this word!"

"So, no time like the present then hah," Jack intoned. "Before I think about this too much and change my mind."

Hathor sat down reluctantly beside him, her eyes smiling. "We agree," she told him.

"You know, I kinda resent that the last time, with you influencing my thoughts, that it wasn't real," he confessed. His facial muscles twitching nervously, a grimace creeping across features that seemed alarmed. "Which is a little unnerving to say the least!" The statement sparked by the confusion that seemed to permeate his mind, as feelings of desire mingled with what felt like infatuation adding to the apprehension he felt, which now, showing clearly on his face, intrigued Hathor.

"We would wonder why our Pharaoh would be so unnerved?" she enquired.

Jack's eyebrows shot up, his eyes darting from one place to the next, as he tried to find a plausible excuse to cover up that moment of complete exposure. He lowered his head, resigned. "Okay, so it was… good," he conceded.

"For us, it was very real," Hathor told him, her eyes lighting up widening, a smile sweeping across her delicate features. "We are most gratified that with his own mind, our Pharaoh is able to confess his pleasure!"

Her hand reached out and caressed his.  He looked into her eyes, searching for something that might give him some assurance that she was creating another illusion, those hypnotic blue eyes wide, filled with diffidence. 

Her beauty as astonishing now, as it had been then. The gentility she seemed to possess at that moment consuming his doubt, his body inclining toward her, his lips brushing her cheek, meeting her lips with a controlled tenderness that perfectly expressed the affinity he felt between them. Sweeping her up into his arms, he carried her to the bed. Laying her down gently, staring at her, still almost hesitantly preparing himself.  Hathor reached up toward him.

"Come our beloved," she encouraged. "Let us make it real for you!"

  ***********

Hammond hung up the phone, looking at Jackson, who had reported back to him after being checked out in the infirmary.

"Well, as I thought, the Pentagon isn't too happy with Colonel O'Neill's latest piece of news," he told the archaeologist.

"Which means what exactly?" Daniel asked candidly. 

"They believe the choice isn't his to make, which means Dr. Jackson, that there are exactly two avenues left open to us!" Hammond explained.

"And they are?" Jackson enquired, already knowing the answer.

"We persuade Colonel O'Neill to return, or we eliminate him!" Hammond took no pleasure in telling the archaeologist that particular option. He'd come to understand himself, although it had meant the loss of one of the finest officers he'd ever served with, that O'Neill had maintained his integrity, and loyalty to his command in serving them where he best felt his particular talents were most useful.

"Well I'd forget about either option General, for one thing you'd never get close to him now, he has over four thousand serving, loyally serving, Jaffa," Jackson stated. "And then of course there's the fact that he comes under the banner system lord now, so a move against him would pretty much be treated as a declaration of war with the Goa'uld, and he also knows exactly what you'd be planning to do, and the tactics you're likely to employ," Jackson concluded. He stood slowly, "Do the, er, Pentagon need any more persuasion than that?"

General Hammond stared at the wily archaeologist, a smile descending on his ample features. "No Dr. Jackson, I think those arguments are pretty compelling. I'll go to Washington myself, and argue them face to face with the Joint Chiefs!" he asserted.

"Need an expert?" Daniel asked, both ready and willing to back up the general.

"Thank you Dr. Jackson, I might at that!" Hammond replied.

"Just give me a call," Jackson told him. "I'll be either sleeping, or in my lab!"

"I'll do that Doctor, thank you!" Hammond smiled even more broadly than he had before. "Son of a gun," he said, once Jackson had left his office. "That boy should have been a politician!"

***********

"So what's the alternative Sam, you can't force him to come back?" Jacob asked.

Carter sighed heavily. "I know Dad, I just don't think he's entirely himself, it just doesn't add up," she opined, walking around her lab, unable to sit still.

"When you've been through as much as he has in the last four months maybe it isn't meant to," Jacob asserted. "Maybe for whatever reason he's moved on, it happens."

"I just can't accept that, I mean the colonel's always been one of the most dedicated advocates of the SGC," she argued.

"I think you just answered your own question Sam," Jacob told her. "Look, I know it's difficult to take, but try to see it from his perspective, just for a moment. In the last four months, his whole world has been turned upside down, agreed?"

Sam nodded. "But that's four months..."

"Of?" Jacob snapped. "Think about it, he's been subjected to just about every humiliation there is, an opportunity to redress the balance has been literally handed to him on a plate!  Come on Sam stop torturing yourself, you'll get a new commanding officer, probably Makepeace, and you'll move on too, and who knows, probably bump into Jack out there somewhere!"

She smiled. "Thanks Dad, it's just going to take a lot of getting used to," she admitted. "I guess everything changes eventually, right?"

"Right!" Jacob said.

She nodded bravely, she didn't believe it, and had a sneaking suspicion that her father didn't either.

"Want some coffee?" she asked.

"Yeah why not, we've got some time to kill before Martouf gets back," he agreed.

***********

"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked, standing in the doorway to the archaeologist’s lab. "May I come in?"

Daniel looked up. "Sure, Teal'c, come on in," he replied. "Sorry, I was concentrating on these artefacts from P3L-353."

"So I observed. You are well?" the Jaffa enquired, standing close to Jackson's workstation.

"Well? Yes, I'm um, fine, and you?" Daniel enquired.

"I too am fine," Teal'c responded. "Is it true that Colonel O'Neill has expressed a desire to remain within the Goa'uld?"

Jackson put down the small bronze artefact he'd been trying to study, an almost hopeless endeavour since he couldn't keep his mind on anything for long enough to actually begin to grasp its origin.

"Um, yes, that's what he said," he confirmed. "So, I guess unless he changes his mind, we're stuck with Makepeace!"

Teal'c regarded the archaeologist curiously then. "You do not like Colonel Makepeace?" he enquired, sidetracked momentarily.

"Well I wasn't thinking of asking him out on a date, but, um...."

The Jaffa sat on the tall stool next to him. "You are quite sure that O'Neill was not under the influence of Goa'uld technology when he made such a request?"

Jackson removed his glasses, rubbing his eyes, stopping almost immediately. "That's a bad habit," he scalded. "Um, as sure as I can be, given the circumstances, I guess?"

"You are certain?" the Jaffa asked once more.

"Teal'c, if I thought that there was any chance of going back there and talking him out of this, trust me, I'd go!" Daniel replied sternly. "But he just doesn't want to come back!"

Teal'c nodded thoughtfully. "Then there is nothing else to be said," he concurred. "Thank you Daniel Jackson."

Daniel looked across at the Jaffa. “No I guess not,” he replied. 

**********

"Kalim, I want everything she takes, food or otherwise checked with me before she gets it," Jack ordered as he walked out from their private chambers, fumbling with the breastplate on his uniform, attempting to fasten it back into place. "Who designed these things anyway?" he complained, accomplishing the feat at the third attempt. "Oh, and in case you're wondering, I don't want the royal 'we' getting her hands on anything that might stop her..." he looked askant at the Jaffa who regarded him curiously. "What?"

"You wish to ensure her obedience to your commands my lord?" Kalim's astute phrasing bringing a smile to the colonel's face.

"Exactly! In fact, I want someone we can trust, someone who’s completely loyal to us," Jack asserted, "watching her around the clock!"

"My wife Phedra," Kalim offered. "She would obey you without question my lord."

"Nice name, okay, whatever you think, you know these guys a lot better than I do!"

Jack agreed. "I'm probably gonna be a while, Chronos is making some kinda noise about Hathor, H thinks I should go explain it. Take charge, do whatever the heck it is you do around here!"

The Jaffa bowed, snapping his fingers at his subordinates. "Jaffa Kree, accompany our lord!" he ordered.

***********

Daniel arrived early at the SGC, smartly suited. A briefcase was in one hand, his laptop in the other.

Hammond waited for him close to the helicopter that would take the to the plane.

"I guess you've hit an immovable object," Daniel remarked as the two men approached the chopper.

"Some damn fool is thinking of sending a special operations team after Colonel O'Neill, we've got exactly three hours to persuade them against it," Hammond explained.

"Why am I not surprised," Jackson opined.

"Frankly I'd have been surprised if they hadn't," Hammond confessed. "Since they look upon Colonel O'Neill as being a bigger threat than the Goa'uld right now!"

"What? That's insane," Daniel retorted. "Just leave it to the government to totally screw everything up!"

"I hope you're feeling more diplomatic than that Dr. Jackson, since everything you say will be paramount in urging them to stand down, urging being the operative word here, Doctor!" Hammond commented.

"General I can only repeat what I said to you," Daniel told him. "But knowing the military, they'll see that like a red flag!"

Hammond nodded. He knew exactly what Jackson meant; he'd been dealing with that element of the military for most of his serving career.

**********

Carter looked at the microscope, the samples brought back by SG6 from their latest mission had shown a high instance of Naquadah, on a planet never mined by the Goa’uld, and it looked promising.

Janet Fraiser appearing in the doorway. “Sam?”

“Hi,” Carter acknowledged, looking away from the sample momentarily.

“How are you holding up?” Janet asked.

Carter smiled. “I’m fine, I just wish we weren’t sitting around here accepting it!” she stated.

“I heard about the Pentagon,” Janet told her. “I hope the General and Dr. Jackson are successful!”

“Janet, this whole Goa’uld mind control issue, is there anything else it might be?” Sam asked, hopeful, that like her, Janet wasn’t prepared to accept that O’Neill had changed that dramatically.

“I know,” Janet sighed. “I’m trying to think of something myself.”

“Glad it isn’t just me,” Sam replied.

“No, I think we all know the Colonel well enough to know something isn’t right!” Janet agreed.

“I just wish I knew what it was?” Sam opined, leaning back against the workbench.

“You and me both!” Janet said.

***********

Jack spun around angrily. He'd listened to Chronos complaining and bitching about his choice of consort for the past hour.

"Look, unless you want a war over this I'd back off, because I won't have you questioning my choices or motives!" he snapped. "Now where I come from, if you capture the enemy then you get to dictate the terms of surrender."

"You dare to challenge me in such a manner?" Chronos sneered. "However many armies you control, you are still not a Goa'uld."

"Yeah well let's be thankful for small mercies shall we," Jack retorted sarcastically.

"Heru'ur, you go along with this?" Chronos demanded.

"I have given my consent," the system lord responded. "Which you would do well to heed."

"Are we done here?" Jack asked, the question directed at Heru'ur.

"Chronos?" Heru'ur enquired.

"For now!" the Goa'uld replied. "With one assurance?"

"Which is?" O'Neill asked.

"That if she fails to bear your child within the next three weeks, you will put an end to her!" he insisted.

"Hey, just how much energy do you think I've got?" Jack quipped, a heavy sigh, regarding the Goa'uld seriously then. "Look, you want to tell me what's got you so spooked about Hathor exactly?"

"I am not... spooked!" Chronos responded quickly.  "You meddle in things you know little of, she is dangerous."

"A little sexism creeping in there?" O'Neill goaded. "Or is there something more to it than that?"

Heru'ur observed this verbal dual with interest; his alliance with O'Neill ensured that the Colonel would win the argument, yet the ease with which he had taken to the Goa'uld lifestyle intrigued the system lord.  Rarely had he seen even Goa'uld stand up to Chronos in such a manner, yet his ally seemed certain enough of his own ability to do so.

"If she is allowed to gain control over one army O'Neill, you will see," Chronos warned.

Jack smiled broadly then. "You're afraid of Hathor?" he charged, the inference he made deliberate.

"You do not know your history Tau'ri, you would be wise to expedite this knowledge!" Chronos told him.

"Yeah, I'll take it under advisement. Thanks for the chat!" O'Neill scoffed. "H, I'll catch you at that meeting deal, tomorrow right?"

"The meeting of the System Lords will be held on your new home world O'Neill," the Goa'uld responded.

"Sweet, it'll be a nice little housewarming then," he replied beginning to walk away, toward the long corridor that would take him back to his ship. "A few snakes round, a couple of drinks," he muttered. "It'll be fun!"

  ************

Pentagon security identification in place, Jackson followed Hammond into the meeting, held in a large stately looking room, a long mahogany table stretching almost the length of it.

Daniel instantly recognised General Vidrine, and Major Davis. A group of Air Force suits all huddled together at the far end, their insignia denoting them as Navy seals, but something that Jackson was familiar enough with to understand.

"General Hammond, Dr. Jackson, have a seat," General Vidrine ordered.

Daniel put his briefcase and laptop in front of him, pouring himself a glass of water, suspecting he'd probably need it.

"General, as you know we're here to discuss the abstraction of Colonel Jack O'Neill from the Goa'uld," Vidrine stated. "I believe you wanted to advise us against this course of action?"

"That's correct sir, Dr. Jackson, who as you are aware, has spent considerable time with Colonel O'Neill during his time within the ranks of the Goa'uld has put forward compelling arguments." Hammond responded.

"Dr. Jackson?" Vidrine prompted.

"Ah, yes. Firstly, Jack's expressed his intention to remain amongst the Goa'uld in service of the SGC, General, since thus far he's been very successful in eliminating two potential threats to Earth I concur with that decision," Daniel began a speech he rehearsed for most of that morning.

"That's hardly compelling Dr. Jackson, since it's not his call to make!" General Roper, a senior adviser to the JCS, remarked.

"Um, right, so you contend that, despite this request, and all evidence to the contrary, that Jack's a threat to Earth right?" Daniel asked. 

Hammond openly cringed at this direct challenge.

"And you believe that having someone who holds the secrets of many of Earth's defences, not to mention the," Roper checked his notes, "knowledge of the Ancients, isn't a threat?"

"That's right, Jack's proven consistently that the Goa'uld can't influence him to act against us. In fact the Ancients download has equipped him with a level of technology that the Goa'uld can't actually use," Jackson explained.

"So this latest incident?" General Vidrine enquired. "With Hathor, would you classify this as not being able to influence the colonel?"

"Um," Daniel looked momentarily uncomfortable. "It was only for a short while General, less than a day," he replied.

"But at anytime, during this day, her influence over the colonel was sufficient to possibly pose a threat to Earth?" Roper asserted.

"I guess you could construe it as such, yes," the archaeologist conceded.

"Any other compelling points you think we should know about Dr. Jackson?" Vidrine asked. "Before we decide on a course of action?"

"Well, if you're considering sending in a team to extract the colonel, then I'd have to say yes!" Daniel replied.

Vidrine gestured for him to continue.

"The Colonel's acceptance within the Goa'uld has elevated him to the rank of system lord, which is comparative to a King, or a President in status. It also means that he's invulnerable, protected by four, possibly five thousand Jaffa, and the other system lords whose armies combined probably number tens of thousands. Added to the fact that the Goa'uld possess far superior technology, I think to even attempt it would be, um, stupid!" Daniel elucidated. "Suicide, profoundly so!"

"So what you're telling us is that we can't trust colonel O'Neill with the lives of his own people?" General Roper entreated.

"No, they probably wouldn't get ten feet from the Stargate, so he'd be a little in the dark!" Daniel remarked.

"General Hammond, Colonel O'Neill's behaviour has never been sanctioned by this command am I correct?" General Roper enquired.

"No sir, the initial opportunity, when the colonel and Dr. Jackson were captured by the Goa'uld Nurti, was sanctioned by the Joint chiefs, under advice of the Tok'ra liaison Jacob Carter," Hammond corrected.

"But since then things have escalated somewhat George, correct?" Vidrine stated.

"Yes sir, that would be correct," Hammond agreed.

"And an understatement," Daniel muttered, shaking his head.

"General, have you at anytime ordered Colonel O'Neill to return to the SGC?" Roper persisted.

"No sir I haven't. I did however ask the Colonel what his plans were, and the reasons for his actions," Hammond confirmed, he knew well how cleverly superior officers liked to insulate themselves from blame.

"And did the colonel give you sufficient reason for those actions?"  General Vidrine asked.

"Well sir, no he didn't, in fact he saw the question as a direct challenge to his loyalty," Hammond recalled. "And under the circumstances, I could see why."

"Excuse me?" Daniel asked, becoming overly concerned with the nature of this inquisition.

"You have something to add Dr. Jackson?" Vidrine enquired.

"Um, yes actually I do, I'm not in the military, but forgive me for thinking that you seem to be inferring that Colonel O'Neill's disobeyed a direct order, which since none has actually been given, is a little difficult," he asserted.

"Daniel, it's merely a fact finding mission, that's all," Major Davis stated.

"Oh I'm sorry, but it's beginning to sound more like a pre‑emptive court martial to me Paul, I thought I was here to explain, being the expert in the room on the Goa'uld, why it's not a good idea to attempt to send in the troops," he contended.

"Dr. Jackson are you really so naive as to think that we can just leave Colonel O'Neill in the midst of our enemy and go about our business hoping that he doesn't switch teams?" General Roper contested arrogantly.

"Naive?" Jackson retorted. "General, if that's naive, then I'd have to agree with you.

But it's a tad better than being certifiable, which is the tag I'd use to describe anyone even considering sending a team into that environment!"

Hammond tried to smother a smile. "Please forgive Dr. Jackson's outburst, General, but he does have a very good point!" he said.

"General Hammond, we have a number of experts within the SGC, and the assistance of the Tok'ra, am I correct?" General Roper asked.

"Yes sir, as well as Dr. Jackson, Major Samantha Carter, and Teal'c, we have teams that are familiar with the enemy," Hammond informed him.

"But Dr. Jackson is the one member of the team who has spent any considerable amount of time at Colonel O'Neill's current location?" Roper asserted.

"That's correct sir," Hammond replied.

"Thank you General, Dr. Jackson, we'll call you back when we've made a decision,"

General Vidrine told them.

***********

Outside Hammond shook his head. "Dr. Jackson do you realise how many Senators and Joint Chiefs were in that room?" he asked.

"No, sir, I really didn't," Jackson responded. "I take it you thought I was a little um, too persuasive?"

"Hell, I'd have said all those things myself," Hammond remarked, sitting down on the bench outside the conference room, chuckling to himself.

Daniel smiled. "You should have said, I'd have been much more confrontational!"

***********

Teal'c stepped aside as the seven-man team passed him in the corridor, making his way to the commissary.  "Daniel Jackson?" he called out, as the archaeologist emerged from the elevator several yards behind them.

"Good morning Teal'c," Daniel acknowledged. "Feeling like a nice jaunt into danger?"

"I do not understand Daniel Jackson, I am merely going to the commissary for breakfast," the Jaffa replied.

Daniel looked quizzically at the stoic expression on the Jaffa's face. "Um, no, I meant, the... you obviously haven't been told yet?" Jackson enquired.

"Of what do you speak?" Teal'c enquired as the pair entered the commissary, the seven men who had seemed in such a hurry to pass him, were sitting huddled together in the corner, one who he recognised as Lt. Colonel Ross.

"Daniel?" Sam caught up to them, still in her civvies. "What's going on?"

"Oh, so you haven't heard either?" Daniel remarked. "Apparently the Pentagon has decided to flex its military muscle, and retrieve Jack," he announced.

"What those goons?" Carter asked, nodding in the direction of the unfamiliar group, her eyes picking out Ross.

"Oh yeah!" Jackson confirmed. "Those goons, and some of us,"

"What?" Carter enquired. "Us as in?"

"Well SG-1, SG-2, SG-3, SG-6 and the um, goons!" Daniel imparted. "General Hammond is talking with your father and Martouf right now, and before you say it, I have no idea!" Daniel told her.

"So do they actually have a plan?" she enquired.

"I believe I shall have eggs," Teal'c informed them both, heading for the counter.

"Um, Teal'c's having eggs, and I have no idea!" Daniel repeated.

"Great! Nothing like a nice piece of good news to brighten up your day!" Sam complained.

"What no eggs?" Daniel quipped, a grin sweeping his features.

***********

Jack sat with Hathor in the gardens of the palace, preferring his fatigues to the usual Goa'uld attire he'd been wearing for weeks.

"You know if we got a couple of dogs, a television set, cable, this would be just like home," he said, looking around at the incredibly idyllic surroundings.

"We wonder what took our Pharaoh from us this morning," she asked, her head laid on his shoulder, enjoying the warmth of the sun.

"Chronos, he's really got it in for you!" Jack told her.

"Yes, we are aware of his hatred for us," she replied.

"You guys have some history I should know about?" O'Neill enquired. "Or is it a hierarchy thing?"

"We despatched his forces when he challenged us," Hathor told him.

"No wonder he's a little cranky," the colonel replied. "Well he backed off, so nothing to worry about there!"

"Our Pharaoh is unwise to think so, he will not rest until he has taken his vengeance upon us," she asserted.

"Then I guess I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it," Jack replied. "Anything else I should know?"

"We will tell our beloved what ever he wants to know," Hathor responded.

"Sweet, mind giving me some clues?" the colonel remarked.

"Does our Pharaoh wish to know if we are with child?" she asked, looking up into his eyes.

"Excuse me?" O'Neill exclaimed. "Isn't that a little early to know?"

Hathor regarded him patiently. "We are not as primitive as humans, our knowledge of the host’s body is far superior," she told him.

"Okay, so you're saying what exactly?" he asked, his thoughts racing unchecked at a million miles an hour, his stomach churning over.

"We are with child," she told him.

Jack stared at her, the weird and uncontrollable emotions colliding in his mind; his hands were shaking, heart racing in his chest.

"Whoa..." he gasped, his eyes wide, uncertain.

"Our Pharaoh is pleased?" Hathor asked.

Jack closed his eyes, trying to get his thoughts under control. "I'm, stunned, is a good ah, word," he said, shaking his head quickly.  "Whoa."

"We are unsure of this word?" Hathor enquired.

"What? Whoa? It's a happy word, so I guess, I'm happy... and shocked, and totally unprepared for this," he told her.

"Then we are happy too," she replied, rubbing her face against his arm.

He took hold of her then, pulling her round into his arms, onto his lap. "I guess this means we'll be spending a lot of time together, and I'll be getting to know your host a little better right?"

"We shall only sleep once the child is formed properly inside us," she told him.

Jack smiled, almost relieved. "So we're talking at least three months, about 90 rotations of the planet right?"

"Our Pharaoh is correct, and we sense that our beloved is happy to be in our company," she intoned, surprised at the smile that greeted the news.

"Well, you caught me then I guess," Jack replied. "Chronos is right, you're one dangerous lady!"

"We are amused," she said, her eyes lighting up of their own accord, her hand stroking his hair softly. "We were just considering the same of our beloved."

Jack kissed her nose. "Well, I guess we should really get married right, do you guys do that? Have a ceremony, like..." He looked at her amused expression. "Okay what? Are you making fun of me?"

"In our world, that we have joined is considered a bond for all eternity," she told him.

"Okay, might have a problem with that," he replied. "But we'll work on it,"

Part 3.6

"Our Pharaoh is very quiet," Hathor told Jack, who had been sitting in silence in their chambers for almost an hour.

"Sorry, just thinking," he told her, looking across at the Goa'uld. "This is a little hard to take in."

"We wonder what this could mean," she asked.

"Okay, this, everything,” Jack replied. "I thought I had a handle on the whole deal, what the hell was I thinking?"

"Is our Pharaoh having second thoughts about the child?" Hathor enquired.

O'Neill looked pensively toward her. "I'm just thinking, that's all," he intoned. His thoughts overwhelmed with that very obvious problem. His hands covered his face, a heavy, protracted sigh. It had seemed so simple, working within the Goa'uld to destroy them, now complicated by his own very apparent inability to deal with what he considered a dumb choice.

Hathor stood, walked over and knelt before him, placing her hands on his, pulling them away from his face.

"Poor child," she whispered. "You are so far from home."

"Ah, yeah!" he groaned. "In the middle of God knows what, with a Goa'uld for a friend, and you for a companion, I don't believe this! What the heck happened to my life anyway?"

"Our beloved is vexed so by this new life he has fashioned for himself?" Hathor asked, releasing his hands. "One that gives him more than he ever had as a slave. What could there possibly be that might make his life more enriched?"

"See that's just it, I didn't fashion anything, none of this, ending up in the middle of something I don't even know how to stop. I mean wasn't it much simpler the other way? Snakes, enemy... hating and..." He paused. "I'm not in control here."

"Tell us, what would you choose if you had been given the choice?" she probed, looking into his face. The confusion, the doubt, amplified back to her through searching eyes, the sadness she perceived, that she heard in his voice, more evident now. "Have you not achieved so much?"

"Why?" he asked, an ironic smile.  "So you can convince me to give you a ribbon device, in exchange for a trip back through the gate to Earth, and retirement, or prison?" 

"We sense that it is not your wish to return to your planet," she imparted, her hands reaching up and caressing his face. "We believe that our Pharaoh is weakened by the thought of us carrying his child."

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "I'm scared, to death." He lowered his head. "I had a kid before, and I lost him. What do you see happening here, long walks along the beaches? ‘Cause that's not what I see, I'm thinking that there's gonna be a time when I'll be forced to make a choice, and I don't know if I can handle that!"

"You are afraid because you possess feelings for something that you cannot even see?" Hathor asked. "We are most intrigued, is our Pharaoh concerned that his deception here will ultimately show itself?"

"Yeah, you can do all that superior stuff now," Jack retorted, ignoring the comment. "I mean the kid’s just another host to you, right?"

Hathor regarded him, considering this, looking away from him. "We have never carried life inside our body before," she revealed. "Our thoughts are unclear on this." Her gaze once more fell upon him. "Perhaps we too shall learn from this experience."

O'Neill looked at her, the soft regard in his eyes betrayed him too easily.

"Or perhaps, we underestimate our power?" she enquired, looking at him with renewed curiosity.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack's tone guarded, defensive.

"Why were you unable to kill us?" she quizzed. "Our Pharaoh had no such reservations before?"

"That was different, you were a threat," he replied honestly. "You know, I don't exactly enjoy killing, it's a human thing, we tend to value life,"

"We have noticed," she replied. "It is obvious to us that you are weak, that you deceive us, does this not make our Pharaoh all that he so clearly despises?"

"I don't know," he replied.

"Your purpose here is to destroy us from within, and you have merely succeeded in destroying yourself," she intoned.

Jack reached onto his right hand, taking off the ribbon device. He offered it to her, the surprise in her eyes was radiating.

"Go ahead, take it," he said. "You'd be doing me a favour!"

She smiled deviously at him. "Our beloved is testing us?" she asked.

"Nope, take it, you said you'd kill me if you had the power right? So, here it is, I'm fresh out of ideas."

She reached out, and took the device, placing it on her hand, standing slowly.

She looked down into his eyes; the emptiness she saw was almost an abyss.

************

The briefing room was packed with the personnel assigned to the mission, the new team secluded in the back.  Makepeace glowered at Colonel Patrick Darnel, a man he'd had many dealings with in the past. He'd been given the task, as the senior field officer, of handling the briefing.

"All right people, listen up!" Makepeace ordered. "Okay for those of you who don't know them, Special Operations team SG-18 is Colonel Darnel, Major Harleson, Captain Turner, Sergeant Palmer, Corporal Cooper, and you all know Lt. Colonel Ross. So, we've been tasked to go deep into Goa'uld territory and extract Colonel O'Neill," Makepeace took a deep breath.

"In conjunction with the Tok'ra, we will be involved in a covert assault, led by myself and Colonel Darnel, into the heart of the planet Colonel O'Neill now calls home, the aim here people, is to get in, rescue the colonel and get out again as quickly, and as quietly as possible. Dr. Jackson!"

"Um, yes, my own objections to this aside," Daniel imparted, standing in front of the screen. "Someone get the lights, please. The planet is called, Ishkarata.  This schematic shows a basic layout of the palace. It was formerly the home world of the Goa'uld Nurti, but now Colonel O'Neill, so the Tok'ra operatives tell us, is using it as his home base," Daniel said.

The new team members looked at each other, shaking their heads.

"The rooms most frequently in use by Colonel O'Neill, and his um, Hathor..." A note of reticence entered his voice. "...are the one's shadowed in red. The mainstay of Jack's Palace guard, being the most elite of Jaffa, I think Teal'c can tell us what their capabilities are, will be stationed in the rooms shaded in grey."  He changed the image, a layout of tunnels on the new image.

"Most Goa'uld build escape tunnels into their facilities, which I've actually seen in this one. The tunnels will lead somewhere out of the palace, Teal'c and Colonel Makepeace will be finding the exit to these tunnels, which is where, hopefully, our team will be able to penetrate without detection."

"Thank you Dr. Jackson," Makepeace said. "The Jaffa, whose number, according to Dr. Jackson, are three to four thousand strong, will be armed with staff weapons and Zat guns."

"Um, Colonel?" Daniel asked.

"Dr. Jackson?"

"We might have another problem here," he stated.

Makepeace immediately allowed the archaeologist to take the floor. 

"Jack made it clear to me that he felt that in order to be effective to the SGC, he should remain amongst the Goa'uld. And whilst under different circumstances, he would probably be grateful for rescue."

"Different circumstances Dr. Jackson?" Major Davis enquired.

"Yes, um, the Colonel has taken a Goa'uld queen by the name of Hathor for his, um, well I guess wife, consort, which might mean, and I'll be as brief as I can here, that the method he intended to employ to keep her subservient, if it's been successful, will definitely precipitate his actively defending Hathor against anyone who tries to harm her in anyway!"

"So, excuse me?" It was Colonel Darnel who spoke, his voice filled with an obvious acrimony. "Colonel O'Neill took himself a local, just so we're clear here, and he's likely to defend this 'thing' against SGC personnel?"

"Um, no, not a local. A Goa'uld queen," Daniel corrected.

Captain Gina Turner shook her head. "A Goa'uld queen? Guess he's not that fussy."

"Lack of choice probably?" Captain Stephen Reece observed. "Besides, being a god, guess he can do pretty much what he wants," he laughed.

"Are you finished?" Carter snapped furiously, both subordinates nodding. 

"Well," Darnell retorted, "armed with one of those Zat guns I've been hearing so much about, I guess we'll just have to put the colonel to sleep and dispose of the hostile!"

Daniel approached him, one hand thrust into his pocket, the other thoughtfully rubbing the side of his forehead.

"Colonel, that won't be as easy as you might think, in fact, I'd really advise you not to do that!"  Jackson's tone was almost condescending.

Makepeace shook his head; he stood up abruptly. "Darnel why don't...."

"It's okay, Colonel," Daniel looked across at his commander. "I think we should hear what he's got to say."

Makepeace shrugged. He glanced toward Sam Carter who sighed heavily.

"No disrespect sir, but is he a marine?" she offered. Makepeace frowned. "It pains me to say yes, Major, believe me!"

Colonel Darnel gave Jackson the once over, clearly affording the archaeologist little respect. "Care to elaborate?" he asked. "On why I shouldn't do that?"

"Well, you might get hurt," Daniel told him flatly. "Badly!"

"Don't worry about me, Doctor! I can take care of myself," Darnel snapped. "If O'Neill gets in the way, he won't have a choice,"

"Right um, yes, let's just examine that shall we?" Jackson's tone now totally filled with impiety. "You'll have a Zat gun, and Jack, let's see, Jack has a ribbon device. For anyone that doesn't know what that is, it's Goa'uld technology, using the power of the mind to send a tremendous amount of energy to the victim via the device which is worn on the hand. In Jack's case, its power is almost twice as potent as any Goa'uld," Daniel mocked.

"Why in Colonel O'Neill's case is the device more effective than for a Goa'uld?" Sergeant Russell enquired.

"Colonel O'Neill has increased mental capacity, due to a download from the Ancients," Sam Carter replied. "We've witnessed heightened awareness, strength, and both telepathic and telekinetic activity. What Daniel is saying, is that when he channels this power through the Goa'uld device, it's amplified."

"So pretty dangerous?" Russell concluded.

"Oh yeah, the Goa'uld can effectively throw you back with enough force to crush you," Carter confirmed. "In Colonel O'Neill's case, it would, if not controlled, tear you in two!"

"Okay, so that's an important piece of information, but he'd have to be facing you to use this weapon right?" Darnel asked.

"Yes sir, the device is like any weapon, used head on," Carter acknowledged.

"So catching him from behind is preferable?"

"If that's possible, it would be your safest option," she replied.

"Great, anything else we should know about our dear Colonel?" Darnel enquired.

"Sorry, I thought you had the whole plan worked out?" Daniel responded.

Makepeace couldn't resist a smile, at times he envied Jackson's position, being able to directly challenge officers of any rank, equipped with a far superior grasp of the situation.

"Patrick, I know you've barely had time to read in any depth, the information and back ground surrounding the situation, but since Dr. Jackson is the expert, when it comes to the Goa'uld, and particularly the situation on Ishkarata, you may want to listen!"

"Go ahead Doctor," Patrick Darnell asked.

"The Goa'uld, particularly those who hold the rank of system lord, are protected by a device that creates an energy field, it's resistant to projectile weapons of high velocity, like a Zat gun, or the weapons that you'll be equipped with," Daniel imparted.

"All right, so he's got a shield, that's useful to know, but it can't be deployed if he doesn't see us coming right?" Darnel responded. "And my team is trained for just that kind of an entry! But thanks for the Intel Dr. Jackson, we'll put it to good use."

Major Colin Harleson stepped forward. "Excuse me sir?" he asked of Makepeace.

"Major?"

"Dr. Jackson, I think the point you're trying to make is that Colonel O'Neill has a good reason to protect this hostile?" he enquired.

"Um, yes, I was getting to that point, something which isn't in any of the briefing files," Daniel confirmed. "Since we can't be entirely sure, but um, the reason Jack might be inclined to protect Hathor.  She may be, um, pregnant!"

"Aw man!" Colonel Darnel exclaimed. "Well this is news! Robert do we have a green light to take out the hostiles in order to extract Colonel O'Neill from this planet?"

Makepeace nodded. "That's affirmative, the orders here are very clear!" he replied.

"Thanks, Dr. Jackson. So, brief overview, Teal'c and I will infiltrate the Jaffa, locate the access point, and signal SG-18 to move in. SG-2, 3 and 6, along with Major Carter, will secure the RV point. We'll confirm that once we're on the planet, Sam." 

"We'll go through the Stargate to a Tok'ra occupied world, where we'll board a Tel'tac. That's a cargo vessel. According to the Tok'ra operatives inside the palace, we should be able to land on the far side of the planet, which will mean quite a hike, but at least we'll go undetected by their space craft," Carter told them. "We're scheduled to move out in just over 24 hours."

"Any questions?" Makepeace enquired.

"Yeah, I got one," Darnel spoke up. "Where's the archaeologist gonna be?"

"That would be with your team Patrick," Makepeace replied.

Daniel regarded the disgusted expression of the SG-18 commander.

"Whoops!" he remarked.

"Why do I get the civilian?" Darnel protested.

"That would be Dr. Jackson you're referring to right?" Makepeace retorted. "Patrick?

How many times have you fought the Jaffa, or the Goa'uld?" he asked, a scowl sweeping his features.

"Your point?" Darnel enquired.

"Dr. Jackson is a member of SG-1, he's seen more action out there fighting this hostile than most of the military personnel on this base, that makes him the most experienced member of your team, he also knows the layout, and Jack O'Neill, better than any one else on this base, which means he might make the difference to you and your team getting out in one piece!" Makepeace informed him. "Any more questions?"

Daniel gathered up his papers. Colonel Darnel sauntering toward him.

"So Dr. Jackson, you don't think we can handle this mission right?" he asked.

"I think I've made that perfectly obvious," Jackson replied.

"What's got you so worried?" Darnel enquired. "You've been on the planet, you know the lay of the land. We've got the personnel to handle it!"

"No, you really don't.  Maybe you weren't listening Colonel, but it's really very simple. You're dealing with a far superior, technologically-speaking, race, and you're also out numbered..."

"Yeah, had those odds before, I'm still here, or maybe you're concerned that we're gonna take out your friend? I've read your files Dr. Jackson, I realise that you owe your life to Jack O'Neill, but let me put this as bluntly as I can, he puts any of my men at risk, I'll neutralise him quicker than he can blink!" Darnel warned.

"It's not Jack putting your men at risk Colonel, it's you, you and this insane idea," Daniel asserted.

Darnel shrugged. "I'm doing as ordered Dr. Jackson, just like you. And sorry if I was a little hard on you there, but I like to know that the people I work with, know their business! We'll try and get you in and out in one piece," he said.

"I'm not worried about my safety Colonel," Daniel told him. "I just don't think this will work."

"You think O'Neill's that good?" Darnel asked, curious now.

Daniel perched himself on the edge of the briefing table. "Jack's survived a lot Colonel, I just don't think the military understands the implications here.  The Goa'uld want him as an ally for a good reason, his knowledge. I don't think they'll just let us take him back without a fight," he explained.

"Listen, I'd like to know exactly what me and my team are getting into here, you got time for a coffee?" Darnel asked.

"Sure, why not," Daniel agreed.

************

Kalim entered the chambers, the sounds he heard from inside disturbed him. He'd waited long enough, hearing nothing for a while.

O'Neill was laying on the bed, motionless, Hathor standing over him, the chair on which he had sat, smashed, an Egyptian ornament shattered on the floor close to his feet.

"Where is the sarcophagus?" she demanded. "Bring it here, now!"

"Will you just stop with that," Jack complained. "I'm not getting in that thing!"

"We do not ask," she snapped.

"We don't care, just take off that damn device," he told her.

Kalim paused, uncertain of how to react. His staff weapon raised toward the Goa'uld queen.

She regarded O'Neill. "We are not pleased!" she remarked, her haughty features scowling at him.

"Sorry, but we don't care!" he winced. The bruising on his right cheek was now apparent as he sat up. He glanced toward his first prime. "Kalim, put that thing down, and get the hell out of here." He cringed openly, holding his ribs.

"But my lord?" he responded.

"Do it!" Jack barked. "Of all the incompetent, weak, useless..!"

Hathor threw the ribbon device across the room forcefully, smashing another ornament and sending the pedestal on which it sat crashing over. The Jaffa, bowing, backed out of the chambers slowly.

"Our Pharaoh should consider the sarcophagus," she told him, walking over to the windows and gazing out, her back to him.

"Ouch!" he moaned as he attempted to stand. "What the hell was that hah? Defective ribbon device?"

"We do not wish to speak with our beloved, leave us," she smarted.

Jack chuckled to himself, groaning again as the pain in his ribs sharply reminded him of his injury.  "If it's any consolation, it hurt!" he told her.

She turned looking furiously toward him, the eyes glowing as she unleashed the temper that had so failed her earlier. "You mock us?" she demanded. "When we have spared your life?"

Jack couldn't help but laugh again, instantly regretting it. "Oh please, it wasn't exactly for the want of trying right?" he asserted. "Anyway, I may have internal bleeding, which might kill me slowly!"

Hathor moved toward him. "We feel no sympathy," she told him. "When our Pharaoh is dead, he will not defy us, and we shall place him in the sarcophagus!"

"Oh that's harsh, so how's the whole weakness thing feeling for you right now?" he asked her, doubling over. "Oh yeah, that hurts, did I mention that?"

Hathor moved toward him, almost involuntary. "You are unwise our beloved," she told him. "We shall not fail again!"

"Yeah, you may be right about that," Jack conceded, sitting down, touching the bruising on his face. "Am I bleeding?" he asked.

"There is no blood," she replied. "Will our Pharaoh explain to us why he wished to be destroyed?"

"Hey! Since you're not exactly the big evil anymore, you figure it out!" he commented. "This is bad."

"We agree!" Hathor sighed. "Will our beloved consider using the sarcophagus?"

"Nope," Jack retorted.

"And if he is dying?" Hathor asked, there seemed to be concern in that question.

Jack looked at her, mildly amused. "Not comfortable is it?" he remarked.

"We do not know to what you refer," she replied. "We have no feelings on the matter!"

"Must be all that hateful stuff getting in the way then, hah?" he said. "Has to be driving you crazy right about now, are we pouting?"

"We detest you!" she spat, turning away from him once more.

Jack shook his head slowly. He'd almost begged her to end it, handing the device to her he knew that, but maybe he didn't, maybe it was a test.  She'd definitely wanted, or part of her had wanted, to rid herself of him, but it had been somehow muted.

"Yeah," he muttered. "We detest you too!"

She turned and regarded him, walking to him. “Our beloved, your pain is great?” she asked.

“Yeah, kinda hurts!” Jack acknowledged. She knelt before him, kissing his fingertips gently.

“Shall we make it better?”

Jack smiled. “Just by being here,” he said softly, stroking her hair. “Why?”

“We are bound by our child, my Pharaoh,” she whispered, “and by our passion for each other. Shall we not acknowledge this?”

O’Neill’s lips met hers. “Let us make our beloved feel our passion,” she said.

“Um, I don’t think the ribs are up to it,” Jack replied; yet even as he did so, he could feel the lure of her touch.

“Then we shall show our Pharaoh that gentility within our nature,” she cooed.

Jack followed her to the bed, laying down wincing as the pain shot through his body. Hathor lay beside him, her lips tracing across his face.

“Relax yourself, our beloved,” she whispered.

**********

"Jacob, how far is this planet by space ship exactly?" Daniel asked as the team began to embark through the Stargate.

"About two days, from the planet we're gating to," he replied.

"Do you think this will work?" Jackson asked.

"Daniel, it's one of those times when I have to say I really don't know, a lot depends on Jack I guess, and how he reacts when you show up," Jacob answered.

The event horizon engulfed them both.  Makepeace, dressed in the Horus guard attire, looked back over his shoulder toward Hammond. The General nodded.

"Man these damn things are about as uncomfortable as it gets," he told Teal'c.

"On the contrary, they are most comfortable, and afford greater protection than the uniform you choose!" he replied.

"Gotta be a Jaffa thing!" Makepeace opined.

Carter and Major Coburn were the last to ascend the ramp. "Nervous?" he asked.

"Yeah, strangely enough I am," she agreed.

"Yeah, me too, not exactly thrilled with this whole idea of using special ops teams either," he remarked.

"Why? They seemed okay, just a little out of their depth at first I guess," she opined.

"Maybe it's just me, but I have a strong distrust of anything called special!" Coburn said as the event horizon claimed them.

***********

Chronos looked at Freya, the former Tok'ra host brought before him by his first prime.

"You will make a good host for our new queen," he said, regarding her with pleasure.

"I'd prefer to die," she commented, "than serve the Goa'uld!"

"You will have no choice in the matter," he snarled. "Bring my new queen."

His first prime stood aside, allowing the servants to bring forth the Jaffa woman that had carried the symbiote.

"Behold your new host my love," Chronos said, taking the symbiote from the host.

His first prime moved forward and restrained Freya, her eyes closing as she felt the creature placed on her back, moving toward her neck. She screamed in pain as it bore it's way into her body.

Chronos looked on, smiling. "Once our queen has taken control of the host, she will deal with Hathor," he said.

**********

The Tel'tac was successfully loaded with the SGC personnel, Teal'c and Makepeace made their way back to the gate.

"Well, let's hope this works! Or we're going to lose an awful lot of good people!" Makepeace opined.

"Do you not believe this plan will work?" Teal'c enquired, as both men concealed themselves under the impressive helmets.

"Can I answer that later?" Makepeace replied.

"Indeed!"

The glyphs entered, the gate activated. Both turned to regard each other, Teal'c threw his arm across his chest.

"Yeah, whatever that means, I'm with you!"

************

"Face it!" Jack snapped, her hands softly stroking his chest. "You couldn't do it cause you didn't want to."

She forced her nails fiercely into his pectoral muscles. "You are clearly mistaken, we do not suffer this infernal weakness," she replied furiously.

Jack’s eyes narrowed. “That part of your gentility?” he enquired, his eyes fixed on hers. "And, come off it, want the device back? Or maybe a Zat?" Jack scalded. "Maybe you could kill me with one of those?"

"We do not wish to kill you, or you would most certainly be dead!" she intoned. 

"So?" Jack offered. "Give me something here, just say one word."

"We refuse!" she pouted.

"You're the most frustrating damn... woman," he cursed. "Look, you're missing the point here, and I'm being as reasonable as possible, you won't kill me Hathor, you can't any more than I could you... so if we just admit it?"

"We are a Goa'uld, a goddess, perhaps you forget, since you clearly only see our host, that we are far superior to you!" Hathor maintained. "We are not capable of having such thoughts."

"Fine, okay, be a Goa'uld, do that whole goddess thing, tell you what, I'll get you a snake charmer if it makes you more agreeable!" Jack espoused, attempting to remove her nails from his chest.  "And, you're probably right, screw the whole being nice thing!"

She raised her eyebrows. "Our Pharaoh is dismissing us?" she demanded.

"Yep, go away, I don't care where you go - anywhere but here, have some motherships," he insisted, turning and facing her again, his arms gesticulating wildly. "Take the whole damn fleet, but get the hell out of my sight, before I change my mind and kill you!"

"Our Pharaoh is indeed copious with his gifts," Hathor retorted. "Perhaps he would admit he will miss us if we leave?"

"Hell no!" he snapped, his features contorting petulantly. "Go! See if I care, damn egotistical self infatuated... snake!"

"Our Pharaoh wounds us," Hathor mocked. An amused, almost patient smile crossed her features, her teeth gently running along his fingers.

"Now see, you're being pretentious now!" he complained. "God!" he exclaimed at the top of his voice. His feelings totally mixed up, he couldn't discern if what he felt was down to the idea that she was carrying his child, or that despite giving her the opportunity to kill him, she had failed, with any real conviction to act on it. He didn't deny the attraction he felt toward her, which only served to intensify the confusion, since he hated Goa'ulds.

"Okay, here's the deal, separate rooms!" he suggested. "You can stay here, under my protection. But not in here, no more doing this whole relationship thing... finished!"

Hathor's regard, those incredible eyes gazing back at him, made him feel almost calm, then.  He didn't like it, couldn't handle whatever it was he was feeling.

"We will not be banished, you may leave our chambers!" she told him.

"Excuse me?" Jack's amazement obvious in the tone, his eyebrows shot up into his forehead.

"We merely suggest that since our Pharaoh does not wish to share our body, that he leave our bed!"

"Our bed?" Jack shook his head quickly, his hands sweeping up holding his face, looking at her through the parted fingers.

"And since our Pharaoh can not be civil, and possesses no courtesy toward us, we feel he should remain silent!" she told him, her tone and manner both irritating and supercilious.

"Okay, now I get it, you're doing this on purpose right?" Jack enquired. "This is designed to be annoying, something you learnt from the host? Or are all female snakes deliberately irritating... and why the hell do I care?"

Hathor sat up now, with her back to him, a smile sweeping across her eyes. She found him amusing, and quite fascinating, as uncertain of her 'feelings' as he obviously was.

"Fine!" he snapped, pulling himself up. "I'll go to one of the other rooms, happy now?"  He stormed towards the door, slamming it on his way out. 

He passed the two Jaffa who stood outside guarding the room. "Women!" he snapped, disappearing down the hallway, and slamming another door.

Hathor emerged from the room then, "Jaffa kree, kel kol mac s'ree O'Neill?" she demanded.

"Yes my queen," Teal'c's familiar tone. He led her down toward the room in which O'Neill had entered.

"Leave us!" she snapped, entering the room and closing the door behind her.

Teal'c rejoined Makepeace. "Man he's in trouble, the sooner we get him out the better," the colonel opined.

"Indeed," Teal'c replied.

************

Jack looked up, sitting on the long bench in front of the windows. "What?" he asked.

She sat down next to him, silently, her hand placed on his. Jack frowned. "Missed me, hah?"

"Our beloved, we are prepared to accept that we may have some," she paused then, “thoughts… this does not account for our failure to kill you!"

"Sweet! So what do we do now?" he enquired. "Pretend we hate each other and see how that works out?"

"Perhaps," she replied. "This is indeed an unfortunate moment for us."

"Us, as in you, right? Yeah I get that too, us isn't having a good time with this either!" he sighed. "It's probably just lust, it'll wear off in a few days, right?"

"Desire?" she asked. "You believe the mind can be so easily commanded by the passions of the flesh?"

"Would explain a lot," he concluded, his eyes completely captivated by her regard.

"That we would be so enamoured of a slave?" Hathor retorted.

"Or a snake!" Jack added thoughtfully. "Which is kinda odd when you think about it!"

"We would like our Pharaoh to once again share our body," she told him.

"Might help get this out of our systems I guess?" he offered, a shrug of his shoulders.

Hathor smiled at him. "Of course," she replied.

************

The Tel'tac was still cloaked as it landed on the surface of Ishkarata.

"Well, that's your ride!" Jacob said. "Looks pretty safe out there, but be cautious, our people have no way of knowing if the Jaffa venture this far from the palace."

"Thanks Dad, we'll be careful," Carter responded. "I'll keep in touch from the RV point let you know when we're on our way back."

"Okay let's move out, we've got to find an RV point between here and the objective before nightfall!" Colonel Darnell snapped.

Daniel threw his rucksack over his shoulders. "It er, stays light on this planet for about 18 hours a day!" he informed the colonel as he passed him, following Carter out.

"Great, doesn't give us that undercover of darkness requirement for stealthy entry for long then?" Darnell complained. "Corporal Cooper, take point. Reece you got our six!"

"Well we're here!" Daniel stated.

"Let's hope we can pull this off, you gonna be okay with Colonel Darnell?" Carter asked.

"Yeah, um, he's okay actually. I spent some time getting him up to speed about the last few months," Daniel told her.

"You did?" Carter looked amazed.

"Um, yes, he was extremely interested in the whole NID interference issue, apparently he and Maybourne go way back," Daniel imparted.

"Why doesn't that surprise me," Carter remarked. "Makepeace doesn't like him."

"Makepeace doesn't like anybody Sam!" Daniel countered.

"True!"

************

"So, the Tok'ra operative is going to show us the tunnels right?" Makepeace asked.

"That is correct, we must however remain here until we are relieved," Teal'c advised.

"Never was one for guard duty!" the colonel remarked.

"The Jaffa are sometimes required to stand guard over the Goa'uld they serve for over 24 hours," Teal'c imparted.

"I'll withdraw my application!" Makepeace retorted. "Oh heads up, here comes the happy couple!"

Jack led Hathor back to their chambers. "Hey, it's hardly my fault H decides on a meet right?" he told her.

"We are not permitted to attend?" she enquired.

"Look, I'd kinda prefer it if you'd stay here, Kalim's not going anywhere you'll be safe here," Jack told her.

"But we are your queen!" Hathor protested. "We should be involved with all decisions made by our Pharaoh!"

They disappeared inside the chambers.

"Will you quit nagging, for crying out loud!" Jack snapped. "I'll fill you in when I get back, just stay!"

He came back outside then, closing the door behind him, looking curiously at the two Jaffa, one a Horus guard, and one a Serpent guard.

"Teal'c?" Jack said. "What the hell are you doing here? And let me guess, Makepeace?"

Neither said anything.

"Okay, where's Daniel? ‘Cause I can hear him like he's pretty close by?"

Makepeace shrugged. "We've been rumbled, how'd you know?" he asked.

O’Neill looked at the colonel, shaking his head. "Daniel, I can hear him, I just said that didn't I?"

"Indeed," Teal'c responded, a heavy sigh.

"So, you didn't answer my question?" Jack asked.

"We're just checking up on you!" Makepeace responded, lowering the helmet. With no one else around, he felt it safe to do so. "Hammond's got to report to the Pentagon, I think you're gonna get kicked out if you don't come back, or we don't give a favourable report, so, aside from arguing with Hathor, which by the way is weird! Doing anything else that might help us out here?"

"Right, you're here wearing those, and Daniel's where exactly?" O'Neill demanded.

"I'll get him on the radio," Makepeace agreed. "He thought if he came too close this might happen!"

Jack took a deep breath. "Okay, look, get Daniel, and get the hell off this planet, some pretty serious stuff is about to go down, and I don't want you guys getting in the middle of it!"

"What's going down?" Makepeace asked.

"Hey! You can't help and you don't need to know," Jack snapped.

"O'Neill, we're not going anywhere. The truth is we're here to take you back!" Makepeace snapped. "So if there's gonna be a war, we need to get our people out!"

"People?" Jack asked. "What people?"

"O'Neill, you must accompany us to the Tel'tac immediately," Teal'c insisted.

"Tel'tac?" Jack looked horror stricken. "God damn it!"

"What?" Makepeace asked.

"Heru'ur's ships are on their way. He detected your damn ship and he thinks Chronos is making a move! Get your people out of that vessel Makepeace, it's gonna be destroyed," Jack snapped.

"Colonel Darnell, come in this is an emergency!" Makepeace said.

"Go ahead," Darnell responded.

"Get everyone out of the Tel'tac, Heru'ur's gonna destroy it!" he barked.

Carter looked horrified, turning, she yelled into her radio, the large explosion in the background made her stop with a jolt, dropping her radio.

The frequency still open, O'Neill looked at the two men, who exchanged worried glances.

"Who'd you just get killed?" he asked.

Part 3.7

"Jacob, come in?" Daniel called on the radio, kneeling next to Sam, who had collapsed in shock at the thought of losing her father.

"Yeah I'm reading you Daniel, damn how the hell did they see me?" he asked.

"Sam, it's okay, he's okay... Sam?" Daniel reassured, shaking the Major by the shoulders when the fact seemed to fail to register with her.

"Dad?" she asked Daniel, the tears streaming down her face.

"He's okay, but we won't be if we don't get under cover. Major, pull yourself together!" Darnell ordered.

"Yes, sir," Carter acknowledged.

"He's okay Sam," Daniel told her. "Come on, before GI Joe has a heart attack!"

************

"Exactly how many people have you brought onto my planet?" Jack demanded.

"Your planet?" Makepeace scoffed. "Playing the part a little well there aren't you Jack?"

"Hey! I do what I have to do, whose idea was this? Sending a bunch of..." Jack looked around at Hathor, who had come from their chambers almost unnoticed. "Hi, we seem to have some uninvited guests!" he told her.

"We heard,” she told him. “Since they plan to kidnap our Pharaoh, should they not be killed immediately?" she asked.

"Um, no, remember that little killing speech I gave a while back?" O'Neill reminded her.

"Look O'Neill, one, you're consorting with a snake!" Makepeace snapped.

"Hey, you're talking about the woman I love here, show a little respect!" Jack demanded.

Hathor smiled at him, raising her eyebrows at Makepeace. "You are a slave, our Pharaoh shows too much mercy!" she told him.

"Hathor, will you just let me do the talking here," Jack reminded her.

She looked away almost a careless disregard. "Thank you!" he added.

"Colonel O'Neill is it not your wish to return to the SGC?" Teal'c asked.

"No! Didn't that message get through with Daniel? I'm gonna harm him severely when I see him!" Jack vociferated. "Kalim, kree shel noc, Heru'ur!"

His first prime turned and made tracks back to the long-range communication device.

"What did he just say?" Makepeace asked Teal'c.

"Why don't you ask me what I just said?" Jack intoned. "Or are you afraid I just sent the snake after your pals?"

"Frankly Jack nothing would surprise me with you anymore," Makepeace retorted, sneering at Hathor, who remain aloof.

"I just told him to stop H!" Jack snapped. "And I don't care what you, or anyone else at the damn SGC thinks, I resigned, or didn't you get that?"

"Oh we got it, but it seems there are some people who still care about you out there," the SG1 leader argued. "And they wanted you back, go figure hah!"

"Makepeace, there's no one that wants me back, except the damn military because they're afraid the Goa'uld will get their hands on this damn download! Cut the bull, let's ask the same question again, who did you bring here, and how many?" Jack demanded.

"Sorry Jack, I'm not telling you that..."

"Since there's no way off this planet, I figure you'll wise up, and anytime now would be good!" O'Neill remarked.

"Why should I tell you?" Makepeace asked. "When so far you've sent your buddy out there to destroy the only means we have of getting safely off this planet?"

"I didn't send him out there, he's watching my six, kinda something that goes with being an ally, but then the SGC wouldn't know anything about that would they?" Jack spat.

He turned to Teal'c. "Teal'c buddy, work with me here, where are they? Or they're dead for sure!"

"I have no idea O'Neill, somewhere on this planet," Teal'c replied.

"Yeah that much I worked out for myself, okay, here's the deal, I might be able to save them. Daniel's out there, Jacob, Carter? SG2, SG3, who else?" Jack asked again.

Teal'c looked at Makepeace. "It is foolish not to speak," he said. "O'Neill will find them eventually,"

"Okay, we've got approximately 23 people out there Colonel, and you don't have a choice, you've got to come back!" Makepeace told him.

"Oh you're wrong about that, I've got a choice Makepeace," Jack retorted. "Right now looks like yours are wearing a little thin though, don't ya think?"

"So what you gonna do Jack, turf us all back through the gate?" Makepeace demanded.

O'Neill shook his head. "Do you have any idea what you've done?" he asked. "If I'm too late, half the Jaffa on this planet are out there, looking for Daniel and Carter. Call ‘em!"

"Sierra one eight niner do you read?" Makepeace called. "I'm personally gonna recommend you get a court martial O'Neill."

"This is Sierra one eight niner, receiving you over."

"We have been captured, I repeat, we've been captured, go to ground," Makepeace snapped.

Jack glared at him. "Oh, smart move!" He intoned.

Makepeace wore a scowl on his face, hearing the sound of the approaching Jaffa.

O'Neill turned, Heru'ur emerging from within the ranks of his Horus guard.

"What is the meaning of the message O'Neill," he stopped looking at Teal'c, his eyes glowing furiously, the scorn and hatred stony on his features. "Shol'vah!"

"All right, keep your damn distance," Jack warned. "It seems the SGC sent these guys to pick me up, apparently I'm missed!"

"You have captured them?" Heru'ur asked.

"Yep, now I'm gonna send them back to Earth with a message, unless you're making decisions on my planet?" Jack told him.

Heru'ur's eyes continued to glow defiantly, his head thrown back, the arrogance and hatred masking his face in an intense and unrelenting glare.

"You have already shown great patience, I will deal with this," Heru'ur asserted.

"No!" Jack spat. "This is my decision H! Don't make me look bad, or I'm gonna get a little cranky with this thing!" He raised the ribbon device. "Now just let me deal with this... please?" He showed deference to the system lord, before his Jaffa.

The Goa'uld glared at his ally. "Very well, but this continued weakness for the Tau'ri will not strengthen your position within the system lords!"

Makepeace slipped his Zat gun carefully from his wrist, Holding the weapon low, waiting for a moment to strike.

"Hey! Since we're wiping them out anyhow, you really give a damn?" O'Neill asked.

Heru'ur nodded slowly. "It will be your choice," he agreed. 

As the system lord turned, Makepeace made his move, raising the weapon, aiming at the back of the Goa'uld.  Teal'c placed his hand on Makepeace's. "Today is not a good day to die," he said softly.

The Colonel looked surprised, but heeded the warning, Lowering the weapon from view as O'Neill turned back to address them.

"Great! Now you made me look bad!" He snapped. "And Makepeace, I heard the clip, don't be firing weapons at H, he'll get a little less easy to handle if you piss him off!"

His attention turned to Teal'c. "Thanks, at least someone around here is using their head!"

Teal'c regarded him. "O'Neill, we are unable to return through the Stargate," he told him.

"No GDO?" Jack said. "Jesus Makepeace, gotta hand it to you, you really know how to screw up a rescue!"

"It's a talent!" the colonel retorted. "So what now?"

"Well you tell me Einstein, you're the one that told them to go to ground, and now your word isn't worth squat!" O'Neill mocked.

"At least I'm not consorting with the enemy!" Makepeace intoned acrimoniously.

"Will you leave her out of this," Jack warned.

Hathor regarded him. "We, will be inside when our Pharaoh tires of these slaves!" she said.

"Yeah, this might take a while!" Jack told her, a smile crossing his face. "I'll see you later!"

************

"Great, so what do we do now?" Daniel asked, looking up at Darnel, under cover of a large cluster of trees they'd located.

"We wait, bide our time," he replied.

"Wait? There's an army of Jaffa on this planet Colonel, and our transport just got blown to hell!" Daniel snapped.

"How did they get caught?" Carter wondered.

Daniel sat bolt up right. "Jack?" he said.

"Well we know that," Carter replied. "But how did he know?"

"No, I mean, me. Jack can hear my thoughts, it had to be me," Daniel told her.

"What?" Darnell exclaimed. "You've got to be kidding me?"

"I wish I was," Daniel sighed. "Let me go in and talk to him, I won't tell him where you are, maybe I can get through to him?"

"Major, what do you think?" Darnell asked.

"I think we should both go sir," Carter replied.

"Oh wait a minute Sam," Daniel argued. "I don't know about that, Hathor doesn't exactly like you."

"I'm not going to talk to Hathor Daniel, I'm going to talk to Colonel O'Neill!" she snapped.

"Okay Major, you think you can get through to him?" Darnell asked.

"I'm pretty sure we can sir," she replied, looking at Jackson. 

"Ah, yeah, we should be okay, I guess," he agreed.

"All right listen, we'll stay here, if you get into trouble just open a channel, we'll do our best to get you out," Darnell told her.

"Thank you sir," she responded. "We'll do our best not to!"

************

Jack stood by the huge double windows in the room Jackson had been given on his initial confinement by Nurti. He stared out into the distance.

"Makepeace, you're really not doing your people any favours here," he opined. "They're in danger out there, and if they try to come in here, it'll be a slaughter, you want that?"

"What I want doesn't really matter does it?" Makepeace retorted. "Loyalty would have been nice though!"

"Loyalty?" O'Neill scoffed spinning around quickly to regard the colonel. "What the heck would anyone on Earth know about that exactly?" His face masked with anger. "Don't come here talking to me about loyalty, you don't know a damn thing!"

The SG1 commander shook his head. "Look Jack, I know the way the NID and others have treated you, it was bad, I agree. I'm saying that what you're doing now, doesn't exactly atone for it!"

Jack laughed. "Makepeace, I've got nothing to apologise, or atone for. I did everything in my power to keep the Goa'uld from getting their hands on this damn thing in my head... you think I like being estranged from everything I knew? Think again!"

"Pouring on the self pity a little thick there aren't you Jack?" Makepeace scoffed. "Come on grow up, this is the military we're talking about, and they don't just let assets walk, not gonna happen Jack, you just don't have a choice!"

O'Neill looked away, smiling to himself. "I'd say you're the ones running out of options right now, wouldn't you?" he asked.

"Okay mister! Listen up," the colonel snapped. "You're coming back to Earth Jack, because too many of us care to just let you walk away and leave the SGC, is that enough to get through that thick skull of yours?" Makepeace demanded.

"Hey! I don't want to come back. What I've got here is more important to Earth than anything I could achieve there, didn't you get the whole resignation thing?" Jack retorted.

"Of all the selfish, self righteous, condescending, egotistical... Jack!" Makepeace snapped. "You don't get it do you?"

"Robert, it's appreciated, the whole baring your soul thing, but it's just not gonna happen, drop it!" Jack insisted. "I've got other considerations, other things here now."

"What like the Goa'uld you're shacking up with?" Makepeace snapped furiously. "What's she got Jack? Aside from a body she's using to alter your perception, and God knows what else!"

"Makepeace, don't go there, not there!" Jack warned. "You don't know anything about Hathor, leave her out of this." He looked angrily toward the colonel, his feelings clearly a little ragged on the issue.

The Colonel shook his head again, the dismay apparent in his features. "Jack, you just don't belong here," he insisted. "What can you possibly do here that you can't do at the SGC?"

"Are you nuts?" Jack asked. "I've already killed Apophis, weakened his forces, next up Chronos, did you want the whole battle plan?  H and I have amassed the most significant armies the Goa'uld have ever seen since Ra, for crying out loud, wake up!" he vociferated.

"You and Heru'ur right?" Makepeace probed.

"That's right, and having the largest forces in the damn galaxy is the only way I know to keep the Goa'uld from testing that protected planets treaty!" O'Neill intoned. "And I don't have a problem with it, clearly you do!"

"Jack, did you just lose a damn brain cell or something? These are Goa'ulds, you know, the enemy, need a lecture on what they're capable of?" Makepeace charged.

Teal'c watched this conflict with a degree of cynicism. He saw O'Neill, clearly his friend was under siege mentality, and Makepeace failed to see it.

O'Neill regarded Makepeace with a look of askance. "Your point?"

"Your lady friend Jack, got you all turned around has she?" the Colonel asked.

"That's my business," Jack retorted defensively, immediately peaking the curiosity of the Jaffa once more.

"The woman you love?" Makepeace remarked. "That was the line Jack, or was that for her benefit?"

"Nope," O'Neill replied, fixing Makepeace with a direct regard, leaving him in little doubt that he meant what he said. "It was for mine, maybe." A change then in those features, that seemed to relax him suddenly. "It was for me," he concluded.

"What?" Makepeace demanded. "Jack, please don't tell me you're saying what I think you're saying?"

"I think I'm saying that you shouldn't have come Makepeace. We're done here, you guys are heading back through the gate, and when I find the rest of your party they're following on your heels!" Jack told him.

"O'Neill, we can't return through the Stargate," Teal'c said.

"Relax Teal'c, I wasn't gonna send you through without the GDO!" O'Neill looked across at the Jaffa. "Even if Makepeace deserves it for sheer stupidity in the line of duty!"

"Indeed!" Teal'c replied, his eyes searching the floor, and then glancing at Makepeace, a cocked eyebrow offered.

"Gotta hand it to you Robert, you're getting a reputation for these screw ups!"

"Apparently. We did intend to leave in the Tel'tac, in my excitement to save you, sorry irritate you, I forgot the damn GDO transmitters!" Makepeace explained.

"Well isn't that special, thanks for sharing!" O'Neill snapped. "So, we'd better find Daniel then hah? I take it someone thought of bringing them? Not like Carter or Daniel to forget right?"

"Major Carter and Daniel Jackson have them O'Neill," Teal'c confirmed.

"Kalim," O'Neill shouted to his first prime, who waited on his master’s instructions outside the room.

"My lord?" His response was immediate.

"Track down the rest of this party of Tau'ri, I want them brought in unharmed, is that clear?" he ordered.

The Jaffa bowed. "Unharmed my lord," he repeated, as he turned and exited the room.

"What are you doing?" Makepeace demanded. "They won't give up without a fight Jack, you'll get them all killed!"

"NO!" Jack snapped, his voice full of fury, and rage that he seemed to have controlled until now. "You got them killed Makepeace, if that's what happens!"

"My God, I never knew you would be capable of this..." Makepeace started.

Jack strode toward him, the rage still contorting his features, the facial muscles twitching with a restraint that he barely controlled. "You have no idea of what I'm capable of, none!" he snapped. “But I guess you’re gonna find out, right!”

"My lord," Kalim announced.

"Daniel, Carter! Here's a shocker, come in, join the party!" Jack said, looking at the pair. "Disarm them," he instructed.

Carter looked surprised at that request, her eyes averting from his intense rage. Jackson immediately doing as instructed handed over his sidearm. Carter managed to conceal her knife.

"Hi Jack," Daniel greeted. "Sorry about this, it wasn't my idea,"

"Oh really? What part of back off didn't Hammond get exactly?" Jack demanded.

"Jack, I tried," Daniel protested. “It wasn’t Hammond either, the Pentagon set this up!”

"Can it Daniel, I don't have time for this, any of this, you almost got yourselves killed coming here, how the hell was I supposed to deal with that exactly?" he vociferated.

"Sorry sir," Carter said woefully.

"Don't apologise to him Major, he's not worth it," Makepeace said.

"Okay Daniel, who's out there? SG-2, 3 and 6, well shouldn't I be honoured, who are the others?" he asked, reading Jackson's thoughts before he ever voiced them.

"Um, a special operations unit, Navy seals I think," the archaeologist told him.

"Colluding with the enemy Dr. Jackson?" Makepeace snapped. "Well doesn't this just get better and better, hard to know who to trust anymore!"

"Colonel, I really don't have a choice, Jack reads my thoughts probably quicker than I can think them, and back off, you're the one who got us into this," Daniel complained.

"Sir, for what it's worth," Carter spoke up, her tone full of reticence. "It's nice to see you."

"Yeah, great Carter. Daniel let me have your radio!" he ordered.

"Our Pharaoh." Hathor's voice instantly seemed to change his mood. He turned, almost gentled, ignoring Daniel's offer of the device.

"Hey," he greeted softly.

"We have been waiting for some time," she told him. "When will these tiresome creatures be gone?"

O'Neill approached her. "Look, let me deal with this okay?" he asked. "It won't be much longer, I promise."

Carter looked on, shocked at the difference her appearance had clearly made to him.