When savages invade the SGC, the highly trained personnel retaliate in a display of togetherness that isn’t as surprising as it is inevitable.

It was a coincidence that Colonel Jack O’Neill was in the control room so late at night, but if he hadn’t been bored, if he hadn’t gone where the action usually was, a lot more people would have died.

This is what happened.

’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’

Colonel Jack O’Neill was bored. Actually he was tired and bored, but he couldn’t sleep. A senior officer had to stay on the base at all times, and tonight it was his turn. Usually he didn’t mind, and earlier in the day he waved the General out with a happy heart, feeling certain that he had plenty of things to do to occupy his time. Why, he had reports to write, and then he could visit Daniel and Carter and just hang out.

But the reports had proved to be boring, and he had given up in disgust.

That left Daniel. But he was busy cataloging some ancient dialect from P something or the other, you know the one, Jack, where they tried to kill us?

But he didn’t, because someone was always trying to kill them, that’s what made it so darn exciting, or not.

Feeling unwelcome, he made his way to Carter’s lab. Major, no, make that a really Major mistake. He was welcome to stay, but she was just about to conduct an experiment on the density of molten Naquada, that’s assuming that they could get any, and could only talk to him when the experiment was finished, that was unless it was urgent?

It wasn’t.

Remembering at the last minute Teal’c was off world with SG3, he began to drift, like a homeless ghost.

There were major advantages to being a commanding officer, he knew it and had worked hard for it, but sometimes he really missed the easy camaraderie that he had when he was a nobody. The way people stiffened and saluted when he walked by was beginning to depress him, so he made his slow way to the one place where he was at home.

The Stargate.

" Evening Sergeant." Jack was pleased to see that Sergeant Simmons didn’t have to peel himself off of the ceiling this time. He was getting better at actually announcing his presence to the man before he walked in. It had been a joke to him at first that Simmons was actually unaware that he was there until he tapped the poor sergeant on the shoulder, but Carter had told him that his lack of noise was seriously stressing the poor man, so he had stopped and thoughtfully clattered his way in from then on.

"Evening Colonel."

Sergeant Simmons was actually glad to see another living soul. For some reason the night seemed to be long and boring, and his shift had just started. Being alone in a control room filled with gently flickering computers was no fun either.

" The astronav computer has the latest Harry Potter game on it, if you want to try it sir."

He was rewarded with a minute lift of one gray eyebrow as the Colonel stared at him. " Isn’t that against regulations?" he drawled.

Simmonds nodded, keeping his amused eyes firmly ahead of him.

" Yes sir, but I figured that you would like to investigate what somebody has done before I removed it sir."

" Quite right sergeant."

Jack sat down with a happy sigh. At last, something worthwhile to do.

" Simmons, this is easy."

Simmons nodded. " Wait until you got to level four, sir, then tell me that again."

" Simmons, you didn’t." Jack contrived to look shocked.

" Play computer games whilst on duty in a clear breach of regulations sir? Why sir, you should know me better by now sir."

Jack O’Neill smiled, his face as silvery as his hair in the reflected light from the screen.

" Luckily I do sergeant."

Then the klaxons sounded, and both men stiffened.

"Incoming wormhole sir."

Colonel O’Neill slowly rose from his chair, all thoughts of his game forgotten.

" Who is it?"

Simmons was frantically hitting keys. " No idea sir."

Chevron one activated.

Jack frowned in thought as chevron two lit up. " Who do we have offworld?"

"SG 2, 3 with Teal’c, and 9 sir." Simmons looked up at him owlishly. " None are due back until tomorrow sir."

Chevron three activated with a thunk, making him start.

" And still no GDO?

" No sir."

" Close the iris."

Simmonds complied in relief. General Hammond rarely left it that late, but then, Colonel O’Neill always had his own style of doing things.

" Iris closed and locked sir."

" Good". Jack nodded in approval as a squad of Special Forces rapidly filled the gate room. They would no longer be needed, but still, it never hurt to be too careful.

Suddenly there was a clatter from the iris.

" Simmons?"

Sergeant Simmons shrugged. " I haven’t a clue sir. It is definitely originating from", he looked at his computer, " a planet designated as WMG 592".

O’Neill raised his eyebrows questioningly. " Oh?"

" Unexplored sir."

Another clatter, then another rattled against the back of the iris.

" Rocks sergeant?"

" Simmons nodded soberly. " Maybe sir. This had to happen sooner…"

Then the world simply exploded.

For Colonel O’Neill what happened next seemed to happen in slow motion.

The iris simply disintegrated in a lethal shower of jagged shards that scythed through the assembled SF’s, shredding them instantly. His eyes widened as the metal continued towards the large control room window, then he pulled sergeant Simmons out of his chair and they dived towards the back of the room.

They were too late. A metal iris made from titanium had no trouble with a puny bulletproof window. The metal caught up with the humans and hurled them against the far wall.

Simmonds woke up to find himself buried under something hard. He was cold and hurting, so he gingerly pulled himself out from under what ever it was and crawled to his knees. That’s where he stopped, swaying drunkenly.

" What the…" He was unaware of speaking aloud until he was answered.

" Foothold Graham. Go. Call Foothold." The Colonel’s voice was harsh, not sounding like him at all.

When he looked round he saw why.

" God, sir…"

Simmons looked in horror at Colonel O’Neill. He was lying partially on his side, his uniform blood soaked due a large jagged piece of metal protruding from his chest.

Despite the tremendous pain that he must be in, his dark brown eyes didn’t waver from the younger mans face.

" It’s up to you Graham. Can you hear them?"

And he could. " Gua’old?"

But O’Neill wasn’t listening.

" Go. Order a Foothold. Go through briefing room. Go."

But Sergeant Graham Simmons couldn’t. Not yet."

"But sir…"

But Colonel O’Neill’s eyes spat fire.

" GO."

So he went. He climbed the metal staircase between the control room and the briefing room fully expecting to be spotted and shot immediately, but nothing happened.

Once in the plush area of the briefing room, he ran in a frantic hunched up position, managing to find the empty hallway beyond in record time. Half sobbing in relief he made a graceless swan dive at the nearest phone and called in a foothold situation. Then he scrambled to his feet and ran as the blast doors began to seal off the base. He wanted to alert the infirmary as to what had happened, and right now.

Colonel Jack O’Neill smiled grimly as he heard the klaxon. Good. These Gua’old were not going to take this base. This base was his base and he was not going to give up without a fight. In fact, he wasn’t going to give up at all. No one was. They were the famous Tau’ri, and nobody was going to take their friggin’ base without one hell of a fight. He smiled grimly as he heard the distinctive rumble as the blast doors began to shut, effectively sealing off the stargate from the rest of the base, then grimaced. Oh sure, the bad guys weren’t going anywhere soon, but neither was he.

" Way to go O’Neill." His voice was soft and pain filled as he slowly began to drag himself towards the nearest wall. Hammond kept a 9mm Beretta in a combination safe there, for just in case, and this was definitely ‘in case.’

Slowly, inch-by-inch he dragged himself towards the wall, trying hard not to think of the piece of metal in his chest. Breathing was okay, but he wanted to cough all the time, which he couldn’t do because it would alert the voices in the gate room that they weren’t alone.

Finding the safe, he willed his trembling fingers to open the combination, then with relief he grasped the comforting metal. Rapidly he loaded the gun, then just sat back, and waited. They would come; it was just a matter of time, and when they did, he would be ready.

’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’

A Foothold situation necessitated the rapid investigation of where the threat originated. This was accomplished by teams of marines and other SF units slowly making their way through the base, checking that one area was secure before moving on to the next. Instruments that measured air density and checked for all types of contagions were studded in the ceiling throughout the base. This Dr Frasier and her team were responsible for, ascertaining if the situation may be due to a biological hazard or not. Nobody was allowed to move into an area before she was satisfied that it was safe to do so.

Then there was the base control room. It was in there that the root of the problem was usually found by serious technical sergeants carefully scanning every inch of the base, using an array of differently configured security cameras situated every ten feet or so. As usual it was they who found the problem way before anybody else.

Major Sam Carter had been deep in her calculations when the klaxons went off. Usually it would take an act of God to pull her away when she was so close to a breakthrough, but a foothold situation was a close second. She was on her feet and half way towards the door before her brain caught up. Previous situations and drills had told her where to go.

Daniel dropped the ceramic urn with the strange writing that he was carefully copying onto his exercise pad and stood distractedly for a moment before pelting out the door.

" Sam, Daniel." They almost collided with each other as they skidded to a halt outside the control room.

" Where’s Jack?"

Sam Carter frowned at Daniels question. " Dunno. I expected him to be the first here, maybe he got caught behind one of the blast doors, lets go check."

Chief master sergeant Delray was pleased to see Major Carter. From what he and his technicians had seen on their screens, she was probably the most senior person left on the base capable of giving orders.

" Hi Chief, what ya got?"

Delray took a deep breath. Shit, this wasn’t going to be easy.

" Maam, we have invaders that came through the stargate. They blew the iris wide open to do so. Sergeant Simmons and Colonel O’Neill were in the control booth. Simmons managed to escape and sound the alarm. But maam," Delray’s eyes found hers,

" Maam, Colonel O’Neill wasn’t so lucky."

She heard Daniel’s soft gasp as Delray pointed at camera three. Although the camera wasn’t color, it still nevertheless gave a clear view of the interior of the control room. It also showed a clearly hurt Colonel O’Neill grimly firing at indistinct figures that were attempting to gain access.

" Any idea who the invaders are?" Daniel asked.

" No sir. They have managed to disable the gate room camera." He shrugged.

" Monochrome is the best we can do, unless they go into the briefing room."

They both looked on in horrified fascination as their friend and commanding officer fired again and again at the indistinct figures, until one of them managed to fire back an energy bolt at him, causing him arch his back and lay still.

" Zat?" Daniel’s voice was incredulous. He peered closely at the screen as the leather-clad invaders cautiously moved towards the twitching figure.

" Oh yeah, definitely some kind of zat."

They all saw a tall well-built man with gold threads in his hair shout something intelligible and cuff one of his companions, obviously not happy about what had transpired. Then he grabbed Jack by his collar and effortlessly dragged the Colonel up the stairs into the briefing room.

" Alright! " Delray’s fingers flew over his keyboard. " Conference time." He pressed the enter button with a flourish, and instantly a large color television sprang to life.

They all gasped in dismay as Jack was roughly tied to a chair.

The Colonel didn’t look good. In color his wounds were clearly evident. His face and hands were pockmarked with shards of safety glass and tiny pieces of iris, coating his skin with a sheen of blood, but that was nothing compared to the piece of what was obviously a shard from the iris itself that protruded from his chest. It was about the size of Daniel’s hand, and looked as if it was in deep.

" People, I want him out of there and into my infirmary stat. So think up something fast."

Daniel turned to the petite brown haired doctor that had just arrived and smiled thinly.

" Believe me Janet, we all want that. We just don’t know how. Not yet."

The invaders were speaking silently and he tapped Delray on the shoulder.

"Do you have sound?"

The man nodded distractedly. " No but we’re working on it."

They all watched grim faced for the next half an hour or so as at least ten silent savages, one after another, asked O’Neill a question. Either he wasn’t answering to their satisfaction, or he was unable to understand them. From the rapid way in which their lips were moving Daniel suspected the latter. The problem was, each time he looked blank, or stubborn, one of them hit the metal embedded in his chest, making him stiffen in agony.

" Please Delray, make it fast."

Daniel needn’t have spoken to the white-faced technician; Sergeant Delray was just as aware of the others how critical sound was. One problem was rerouting the audio/video feed from the briefing room via his control booth. The other problem was that the briefing room was on level 28, quite a few floors below them. He had his technicians frantically crawling in the air conditioner ducts rewiring things, but all this was taking time, time that Colonel O’Neill didn’t seem to have.

He watched horrified as one of the savages punched the Colonel again, forcing the shard in deeper and causing O’Neill to convulse and lose consciousness.

" Delray, make it snappy, and that’s an order." He nodded; gray faced, as General Hammond’s distinctive Texan drawl was heard.

" Believe me sir, we’re going as fast as we can. It’s just that the control booth has never been privy to the briefing room conference facilities." He looked up at Hammond, his eyes pleading. " We are doing everything we can, but it takes time to crawl through the air conditioning ducts looking for the right wires." He jerked his head as the speaker began to crackle. "We’re getting close sir."

Hammond nodded gratefully. His rapid removal from the safe bosom of his family would be a topic of conversation at a later date; he was sure, but for now his irate family was forgotten as he watched his 2IC struggle for breath. Slowly his hands balled into fists. That could just as easily have been him in that chair, something he was profoundly grateful was not the case, which made him feel intensely guilty.

As he watched, one of the impatient savages casually threw a roundhouse punch at O’Neill’s chin, causing the man to slump sideways in the chair, the only thing still holding him upright being his restraints.

" Delray… " Both the General and Doc Fraiser growled at the hapless technician threateningly, causing the man to hunch in his chair.

Sam Carter was only half listening, her agile brain grappling with a germ of an idea caused by something Delray had said.

" Chief Delray, how far down into Cheyenne Mountain do the air conditioning duct’s go? Do you know?"

"All the way down, I guess, maam," he said looking at her curiously.

Her heart jumped and she turned to face the General.

" Sir, permission to take two lightweight people and a whole lot of teargas down to the gateroom via the air conditioning ducts."

Hammond nodded, a relieved smile on his face.

" Permission granted Major."

General Hammond, Dr Fraiser, and Daniel were left alone in the control booth as Major Carter ran out the door, yelling as she went. Then there was silence.

They all wore similar sickened expressions on their faces at the sight of the crumpled Colonel. Every now and then, one of the warriors walked past and hit the unconscious man in the face. Obviously the leader, the one with the gold braid in his hair, had warned then away from the bloody mess that was his chest.

" Got it!" They all jumped as suddenly the control booth was filled with harsh guttural sounds, making General Hammond whirl on their resident linguist.

" Dr Jackson?"

He was standing still, drinking in the language. " It’s a mixture of Aztec and Gould, sir."

Hammond frowned as yet another man hit the Colonel. " Can you talk to them?"

Jackson nodded and leaned over Sgt Delray.

" Tell them that they will accomplish nothing if the Colonel is hurt further."

Shutting his eyes for a moment to concentrate, Daniel then spoke rapidly into the mike.

The effect his voice had on the savages was startling.

" Kah n’ma tree?"

If the situation weren’t so tense, he would have been amused to see all ten savages stare different directions as the sound of his voice filtered into the control booth.

" N’Lau kelno kree. Da ga nago mugta knap." The leader made a cutting motion with his hand. " J’maghta kree!"

Daniel looked up at the hopeful General and Doctor.

" They say that unless they are not taken to the surface immediately, they will kill Jack."

Hammond frowned. " You know that’s unacceptable."

Jackson looked desperate. " Sir, I really don’t think he’s bluffing."

General Hammond looked at his 2IC, his face an expressionless mask. Sometimes the chain of command weighed heavily on his shoulders.

Slowly he made his way to the phone.

" This is Hammond. I want a full contingent of heavily armed marines, complete with gas masks, outside that briefing room blast door. If I give the order, they have my full permission to storm the room and neutralize any hostiles they see." He listened intently for a moment. " Captain, If I give that order, that will mean that the Colonel is no longer a deterring factor in the equation."

Nodding, he put down the phone, only to stare directly into the horrified eyes of Dr Daniel Jackson.

" Don’t you ever speak English when you order someone’s death?"

Hammond shook his head, his expression hard.

" Jackson, Colonel O’Neill is a career officer. He’s well aware of the risks. This is also a last resort. Remember that Major Carter is somewhere in the complex with tear gas canisters. Hopefully she can get above the briefing room in time." He held up his hands placatingly. " That’s why I ordered the marines to be kitted out with gas masks."

Daniel gritted his teeth. " The Colonel doesn’t have enough time for all this."

Suddenly General Hammonds iron tight control slipped.

" Them make him some time," he shouted, gesturing to the microphone. " You’re the clever linguist, think of something. Lie, sing, beg, whatever. Just buy him some time."

White faced, Daniel Jackson slowly returned to the microphone. He had never, ever, in his life seen the General so upset. The mask had slipped, giving him a brief glimpse of molten fury, something he hadn’t expected from the normally placid Texan.

Now it was up to him.

" Esteemed Warriors, the tribal elders are gathering as we speak, their decision a foregone conclusion. They will allow your esteemed persons into our sunshine, but only if our friend is left alone. If our friend dies by your hand, the gathering elders may decide to vote against you."

The leader was beside himself.

" I. Tanka, leader of Arramon, wish to be shown your planet immediately. If you do not comply immediately, this person dies."

Grabbing Jack by his hair, he roughly yanked his head back, exposing his throat.

Smiling evilly, he took out a heavy ornamental knife and lay it against the unconscious mans throat.

" Tell your elders that any further delay will not be tolerated."

Daniel watched, horrified, as Tanka slid the metal across Jacks throat, leaving a thin line of blood in its wake. Unconscious as he was, Jack had no defense against what was happening.

" General…" Daniel moaned, horrified beyond belief.

" She’s almost there," Hammons shouted, his ear firmly glued to the phone.

" Watch the screen…now!"

On cue, the two air conditioning ducts swung open and six hissing canisters were thrown down, immediately suffusing the room with a cloud of white vapor.

" Captain, tear gas used, four friendlies in the room, go." Dropping the phone, General Hammond raced to the TV screen in time to see eight indistinct forms roll under the slowly rising blast door. There was some confused shouting and a lot of weapons fire, all hidden by clouds of white smoke, then, silence.

Seconds later, a gas-masked face could be seen leaning close to the camera.

" Sir," it shouted, " The enemy has been neutralized. We’re going to move the Colonel to the Gateroom floor. Captain Griggs out."

With a sigh of relief, General Hammond turned to face Dr’s Fraiser and Jackson.

" See, that’s…" He could have saved his breath. The room was empty.

Jack O’Neill slowly became aware that he was somewhere… else. Somewhere…safe. Then the steady soft beeping told him precisely where he was.

The infirmary. So, they’d gotten the bad guys. Way to go.

Slowly he opened his eyes, blinking in the harsh light, waiting patiently for his eyes to adjust. He was an old pro at this.

" Jack?" Blinking furiously, he slowly lowered his gaze, until he was looking at the rotund figure of General Hammond.

The General leaned forwards, his eyes direct. " Don’t try to talk son. I just want to say thanks." Jack just looked at him blankly, his sluggish brain giving up the fight to understand.

"Thank you for everything, and moreover, thank you for training them so well. " Smiling, he gently squeezed his 2IC’s shoulder, and was gone, leaving behind a very perplexed Colonel.

He was still looking towards the door when a soft hand gently took his wrist.

" Morning Colonel." Jack frowned, confused. Morning?

He looked up into the warm eyes of Dr Janet Fraiser.

" Hello hero. We have some people who would like to see you, if you’re up to it?"

" Ynth prgh." Smiling, she waved at the door. " Don’t try to talk just yet. They broke your jaw as well as running you through with that piece of metal."

She smiled at the confused man and beckoned to his team. " Don’t let him try to talk," she warned, aware that no one was going to obey her, especially Colonel O’Neill.

" Hi Jack." Jack O’Neill lifted his hand and waved his fingers at the team. He wanted desperately to ask them something.

" Smmoths?" He was met with three pairs of uncomprehending eyes.

" Nth Smmoths hnnay?"

Teal’c, long since returned with SG3, raised an eyebrow, looking intrigued. " Does O’Neill now speak Gua’old? Some of his words sound like the dialect of Yarmin."

Snorting in irritation, Jack held up his hand and mimed the universal sign of writing.

" Oh, sure Jack." Daniel shot to his feet and hastily fetched a pen and clipboard from Fraiser’s office. " Here."

Carefully Jack took the proffered pen in his hand, wishing that someone would have the intelligence to raise the head of his bed so he could see what the heck he was writing.

When no one did, that was the first thing he wrote. In large trembling letters he wrote,

" Sit up."

Daniel deciphered his writing immediately. " Hey Janet," he called, " Jack wants to sit upright."

" Not a chance," filtered her voice from the office. " He has over thirty stitches in him. He lies flat."

Daniel turned back to the man with burning dark eyes and shrugged. " Sorry Jack."

Sighing in defeat, Jack laboriously wrote something else.

" Simmons?"

" Oh." He saw Carter lean forwards, looking shocked. " Oh, I’m sorry Colonel, we should have told you immediately. Graham is fine. He’s full of shrapnel from the iris and looks like a victim of a severe traffic accident, but besides that, he’s fine."

" Kinda like you do," Daniel said, smiling, " Only in your case it was a head-on with a truck."

Jack tried to smile, found he couldn’t, and reached for the pen again.

" What happened?"

Daniel smiled sitting on the edge of his chair. " Teamwork, that’s what happened. " Sergeant Delray in the control booth kept the video feed going the whole time you were a captive, allowing us to see you at all times, after a while his guys got an audio feed going, thus allowing me to speak to the bastards. After that it was just a case of stalling them until GI Sam and her team were in position to take them out."

Daniel smiled at the confused look on Jack’s face.

" Damn Jack, you should have seen it. Sam acted like a female Rambo by crawling into the air conditioning ducts, a can of tear gas clutched in each hand and probably one in her teeth. When she reached your location she threw them in and swung in afterwards firing her armorlite as she did so." He sighed theatrically, his hands over his heart. " It was fantastic."

" I had help." The embarrassed mumble came from Carter’s hunched form, sat on the edge of his bed.

" Mmaizhurr?" Slowly Jack reached out to her, trying to pull one of her hands away from her face. At first she resisted, then allowed him victory, exposing her embarrassed face to his dark gaze.

" It wasn’t just me, I had help from Lieutenant Carrera and Captain Wills. We all crawled into the ducts with teargas. Besides, If it wasn’t for Daniel delaying them by keeping them talking long enough for us to get into position, whatever we did wouldn’t have made much of a difference."

Jack fixes his eyes on a red faced Daniel Jackson.

" Thhx Dnnul."

" Oh. It was nothing," he said, waving his hand airily.

Teal’c stirred. " Danieljackson. This was O’Neill you saved from certain death. That made it considerably more than nothing."

Daniel was abruptly serious. " You’re right Teal’c. I apologize."

He leaned forwards towards Jack. " Jack, I’ve long since come to this conclusion. We’re all heroes. We work as a seamless team, always. From you stopping the bad guys dead, to me stalling them to Sam tear-gassing them." He shrugged his shoulders. " Hell, if Teal’c had been here, he too would have had an ingenious plan. And it’s all due to you. You’re our teacher, our leader in Hero school."

He smiled as Jack wrote furiously on his pad.

" Don’t bother to write any more. I’m not going to read your denials."

But Jack O’Neill wasn’t deterred. In large trembling letters he wrote two words.

" I know."

He looked up at Daniel briefly, his eyes dancing, and then resumed scribbling. " It was inevitable that this would happen one day, not the foothold situation but our reaction as a team to it. When the chips were down, we meshed. We didn’t just react; we interlocked together, no longer a team, but a unit. That is something so rare and precious.

Okay, so everyone in the SGC, from the General down, think we’re all heroes, and maybe they’re right, but if that is the case, so is everybody here, because this inevitability thing? It’s highly contagious.

It’s prevalent to the whole base. It makes heroes out of us all.

Just don’t tell anybody, we have enough big heads here as it is."

He looked up to see four grins, Janet and the usually expressionless Teal’c joining in on the mirth. Ignoring them, he tapped the pen lightly against the clipboard, lost in thought, and then wrote for a minute, relaxing back with a tired sigh when he was finished, instantly falling asleep.

It was Daniel who took the clipboard from his slack fingers and read it aloud.

" Thank you for being there for me, as I knew you would. My capture was unexpected, your reaction to it wasn’t. That you would be there for me was a given, your rescue of me inevitable. Thank you for being SG1, my family, my friends and my protectors. Without you I am nothing. With you I am everything."

" This paper will self-destruct in five seconds."

*EINDE

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