Fic: A Call To Arms 5/5 StarGate SG-1/StarGate: Atlantis
A Call to Arms
By: Lopaka Tanu
Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Stargate.
Fandom: Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: Martouf/Daniel
Category: Slash. Open AU.
Warnings: Violence, Language,
Summary: In the sudden silence that has filled the galaxy after the Goa'uld were wiped out, life for those who survived the war is stagnating. The Tok'ra are now trying to prevent the former slaves from killing themeselves and everyone else. Colonization of the galaxy has provided the SGC with a distraction, giving everyone something to do. It is to this that Daniel has come home to.... and from this he wishes to flee. _______________________________________________________ Wrapped in a large thermal blanket, Jack sat shivering upon his office couch facing his television. He was debating between popping in the red wings game last night, playing Teal'c's play station, or using his game boy. Each one had their merrits, each one was a comfort after the abuse he had been through at the hands of those vile, spiteful nurses. He really needed to kick some ass and all three provided that release.
The shadows of his office changing in the television's light drew his attention to the door way. "Hey, Daniel, come to abase yourself and apologize?"
"Um, why?" Glancing about the room, Daniel shrugged non chalantly. It wasn't his fault that Jack had been treated so poorly.
"Don't even think about trying that Innocent Daniel routine with me, I know all about your predilictions. You deliberately set them harpies upon me." Pulling the blanket closer, Jack hunkered down in to his seat. "Oh yes, I know all about them."
"Oh, please, like they would need incentive from me. You do a pretty good job of hasseling them all by yourself." Daniel came to sit on the couch arm rest next to Jack. Snorting at the screen, he rolled his eyes. "Cartoons, Jack?"
"Don't mock the Simpsons, Daniel, I've seen your Hello Kitty collection." That served to cheer him up a little. He knew Daniel was defensive about being found watching Cassie's tape. Of course Daniel being high on something he got from Teal'c at the time had nothing to do with it, nothing at all.
"I thought we agreed never to bring up that incident, Jack, or lest I remind you of the gerbile in the undershorts incident. Which I'm still not certain that you..." He was hushed by Jack's hand over his mouth. Staring at the other man, he smirked behind Jack's hand.
"Point taken, no more talking." Jack patted the coushion beside him. "Come, watch, vegitate."
"Sorry, no can do." Standing up, Daniel gave a good imitation of being tired. "Long day, need my beauty sleep." Moving for the door, he ignored Jack's snort. "Just came to see if you were okay. Now that I see you were never okay, I'm going away now."
"Yeah, you do that." Jack waited for Daniel to leave before he went back to the debate. In front of him was the Play Station, behind that was the red wings game in the VCR, and off to his left was... nothing. His game boy was gone! Jack went about searching around the couch for it, as far as his blanket would stretch. Not finding it, only one solution came to mind. "Daniel!"
Jack stood up to go after his thief, but stepped on the edge of the blanket as he tried. The blanket slipped from his fingers and he came tumbling down on to the play station and the table it was sitting on. The last thought before blacking out was that Teal'c was going to kill him.
Bringing the tel'tac out of hyperspace, Teal'c leaned forwards in his seat to avoid being thrown backwards by the sudden deceleration. Glancing over to his companion, he raised an eyebrow. "You appear to be most distressed, has something upset you?"
Combing back his hair, Aldwin gave the Jaffa an incredulous look. "I was not prepared for your abrupt actions. Why did we come out of hyperspace?"
Teal'c turned back to his console and ran his fingers over the control core. "There was a distress signal. I have altered our course to intercept." Bringing the image of the planet below them, Teal'c glanced at Aldwin again. "We are here."
"I am scanning for any signs of technology." Bringing his own controls online, Aldwin began using the pulse sweeps of the sensors to detect any form of advanced technology. What he found surprised him. "I have found the remains of a trinium based vessel. There seems to have been a massive naquadah explosion at the source of the trinium destroying the vessel."
"There are other naquadah readings in orbit of the planet and they do not appear to be a natural phenominon." Scanning again, Teal'c sent out a signal on a hunch. When he recieved a responce, he again raised an eyebrow. "I believe I have identified their source."
The stargate exploded in to life on the Tau'ri sending the people in the control room in to a panic. No scheduled off world missions were due to report and they were bracing for an attack. When the monitors activated to relay their information, a different kind of emotion set in. Sargent Davis turned to look at the now arriving General. "Sir, it's the automated defence system of Colony Vega. The Satellite Defense Grid was activated by the arrival of an alien vessel and has proceeded in to Def Con 1, total destruction."
"Send the abort codes!" His own alarm at the situation started to grow. General Hammond typed in his own codes along side Sargent Davis. Before they could hit the send keys, the gate shut down. He glanced over to the Sargent. "What the hell just happened?"
"Complete system wipe out," the sargent whispered. "The entire grid was set to self destruct if someone tried to tamper with them."
Hammond shook his head in disgust. "Do we know who it was?"
"The sensors didn't have time to send that information before they were destroyed, sir."
"Lock out that planet from our dialing computer, then dial the other colonies and our allies, warn them of the attack."
Yawning, Rodney watched as the computer shut down. He grabbed his coat off the back of his chair and moved for the door. After an extremely eventful day, he was ready to call it quits. Checking his watch revealed it was around midnight. It was a good thing he was leaving then, wouldn't want to miss the Late Late Show. He heard there were some models male and female, just the way he liked them.
On his way out the door, he hit the switch. The door slid shut behind him with a mechanical click. He loved this technology, it was always so professional.
Before he went home, there was just one last thing he wanted to check over first. Daniel had an ass he just had to say good night to. The walk to Daniel's lab felt longer than it normally did, but he dismissed it with the next thought as he was barely moving. May be he would simply stay on the base tonight, he didn't need another ticket for crawling down the road.
Coming around the final bend in the corridor, he yawned again. Daniel's lab was just off to the right. Of course, the door was sealed shut when he tried his pass card. He knocked on it while covering his mouth from another yawn. "Daniel? You in there?" Rodney pressed his ear to the metal door to hear.
What sounded like a blow torch shutting off was followed by foot steps to the door. "Yeah, Rodney, just a little busy at the moment. Is there something you need?"
"No, not really!" Rodney glared at the door as it was the most offensive thing in existance. "Nothing seeing your ass wouldn't fix." Then after a second. "Just wanted to say good night!"
"Oh, okay! See you later!" Daniel's foot steps trailed off in the lab followed by the kick start of an air compressor coming on.
Rodney frowned at the door. What the hell could Daniel be doing in there. Another yawn distracted him and Rodney decided it could wait til tomorrow before he investigated. Shrugging, he continued on his sluggish way to the elevators and then the VIP suits.
An incessant tapping at his door awoke Jack to a world of pain. Rolling away from the remains of his coffee table and Teal'c's play station, Jack glared at the offending door. If that was Daniel, he was, quite simply, going to kill him. That was all there was to, that kid of his had finally crossed the line with the theft of his game boy. As the tapping grew louder, Jack lost his patience. "I'm coming, you bastard son of a whore!"
The door opening revealed just who the bastard son of a whore was and wasn't to pleased either. "Jack, I thought we agreed to leave my father out of things." Holding a cup of freshly brewed coffee, Maybourne set it down on the television set, seeing as the coffee table was gone. "General Hammond has instructed me to awaken you. We have a VIP who will be going through the gate in two hours and you are needed to show the usual pompass shit for the dignitary."
"Oh, goody, just hold on while I jump for joy." Jack lifted a hand limply and waved it about before letting it fall to his side. "Oh, yea, yeah, whoo-hoo. There, I'm done. Thanks for the coffee."
"Don't mention it." Waving him off, Maybourne threw him his pants from the back of the couch. "Get dressed, as much as some people might like the sight of you in boxers, the VIP is a sticker for things like regulations."
"Speaking of sticklers, where's Daniel at this moment?" Jack slurped his coffee just to annoy the other colonel. When he didn't get the desired reaction, he patted his chest and belched.
"Dr. Jackson," Harry pulled out his hand held device and called up the information. He sighed with boredom. "He is in the same place he has been for the past twelve hours, his lab. If you need something else, call a waitress, I've got better things to do." Closing his hand device, he stalked out of the room, shutting door with an almost slam.
Two hours, he had two hours to make Daniel suffer before this Butt Viper came. The things he could do in two hours would make his mother scream in terror. Daniel was going to regret ever taking his game boy!
"Daniel, you'll open this damn door before I kick it in! Don't make me get, Maybourne, you won't like me when I have to get Maybourne. Do you hear me? I will get him, oh yes, I will, that isn't an idle threat!" Jack kicked at the door, thankful for his military issue combat boots. Anything else wouldn't get that satisfying resounding ring from the door. Of course, his actions were all for not, he couldn't get that four eyed geek to get his ass out here.
He knew Daniel was ignoring him, he had been very loud and verbal for the past half hour. The words he had been saying would never be found in a dictionary, at least nothing respectable, in his opinion. Then again, he wasn't about respect lately. "God damn it, Daniel, you smarmy little bastard, I will get it back! I promise you, you will suffer when I do!"
Glancing at his watch, he knew he would be late if he didn't leave now and General Hammond would be the one doing the shouting. Shooting a glare at the door, he stormed towards the elevator banks.
Inside Daniel's lab, a mechanical whine filled the room. It was shortly cut off and the blow torch activated. The moment the torch touched it, the mechanical organism screamed.
Sam wiped the sweat from her brow, ready to kill the next person who even looked at her wrong. Twenty-eight straight hours of work, she was wiped, and they do this to her. They still had eight hours to rest before the Inspector from the International Council was originally scheduled to arrive and over see her work. After twenty-eight hours of work, they had been notified the Inspector General was coming not only early, but with his own team of scientists. So now she was wound tighter than a rubberband air plane and she was about to snap.
Dr.s Merryl and Petrikov were right beside her in that reguard. Standing around their break area, they had been snipping at each other. It was about to grow to intolerable if they didn't do something fast.
Glancing at her watch, Sam made a sound of digust. "You know what, fuck this! I've had it! I mean, what are we breaking our backs for? We all know that this guy isn't going to be impressed with our work and this project is going to be taken from us or shut down. We haven't done enough in their opinion, even though we are the best damned scientists in our fields, they think they can do better!"
She reached in to her pocket and pulled out the security pass card. "If they believe they can do a better job, let them! I'm going to get wasted, coming?" Sam didn't wait for them to respond before starting for the door. Sliding her key card through, she slipped through as it was barely open.
Merryl glanced over at Petrikov, but she was already on the move to follow Sam. Sighing, he moved quickly to follow them. After their past day, it seemed like the best idea yet.
Five minutes in Inspector General Sharipova's presence and Rodney was ready to strangle the American's neck. For starters, the man had been late by fifty-five minutes, making them all wait. Then, when he deigned to grace them with his existance, the smug bastard had been nothing but demanding of them. Perfect example was going on now.
"General, where is that cappacino I just ordered? Really, if this is the best hospitality you have to offer, I can't imagine what..." He was silenced by a dark spector's arrival. Not seeing, but seeming to feel the stare of the man behind him, Sharipova shivered. "Shall we get down to business?"
"The gate is ready any time you are." Gesturing for the door, Hammond silently thanked Maybourne for his timely arrival. If the pompous little man made one more remark, just one, George would toss his well manicured ass through the gate himself.
"About time." Standing from his seat, Sharipova dusted off his jacket and snapped his fingers for his aids to come to his side. "I am ready to leave now."
"Right away, sir." The younger of the three made for the door and held it open for the man.
Sharipova sailed passed the man with a sniff, his head tilted slightly upwards to demonstrait his superiority over all those he percieved. That is, those he deigned to percieve. He pushed passed the Special Forces guards outside the room and down the hall towards where he knew the gate was. He had memorized the lay out of this place, couldn't trust such important things like emergency evacuations to things like military personnel.
After the man and his entourage had left, the foul mood lingered like a bad fart in Jack's opinion. Turning to the General, he opened his mouth to ask if they could accidently send the man to the wrong planet and found the General already looking at him in denial. Sulking, he nodded and followed the Inspector General out the door.
With a shuddering breath, Daniel backed away from his creation and wiped his hands off on a towel. What the hell it was, he couldn't be sure. What it did, that too was a mystery. There were a great many things in this monstrocity that he had 'borrowed' from other people, but that didn't mean he understood it's purpose, just that he needed them. Right now, it lay dormant and taking up an entire wall of his lab.
From what he could see of the damned thing, it appeared to be a computer of some kind. There were eight keyboards, eight corrisponding monitor screens, and a hundred crystals in a variety of colors on six tiers at the center making it look like a demented pipe organ. This was all bound together with a spiderweb of wires and metal mounts. All of it centered around the wall port he had used to hack the base's intranet.
He cocked his head to the side to study it. There was something missing from it all. After a minute, it came to him. It needed a power source. The one he had been using for it had died in the middle of the night. Jack wouldn't be happy about that, his jeep battery had cost him a pretty penny.
He would just have to find a larger, more stable power source. That too came to him in a second of thought. It would require going to the surface, redirecting the powerflow, constructing a reciever/buffer, and finally a hard line tap directly from the generator to this device. Reaching up to where the batter had sat, he stripped away the cables and exposed the heart of the machine. There was only one way he could do this.
Satisfied he had done all he could with what he had, Daniel turned for the door. Placing his hand against the wall sensor, he focused a single thought at it. The next instant he disappeared in a flash of light.
He appeared in the generator complex on top of the Mountain a moment later, the white light disappaiting in short order. Walking over to the crystal generator, he clipped the palm device to his belt. He had to work quickly if he was going to get this done before he was discovered, and there was a lot of work to be done.
They were waiting for them when the gate opened. Standing there with her bag behind her, Sam lazily took a drag from the menthal cigarette. It was strong enough to cover up the smell of marijuana on her breath, but still left her buzzed. Blowing out the smoke in a stream at the polished man that stepped through the gate first, Sam grinned. "What kept you?"
"I assume you are Major Carter?" Waving at the smoke in disgust, Sharipova coughed overly loud to demonstrate his distaste. When Sam basically ignored him, he did it again.
"You should get that cough looked at." Sam's lazy grin was matched by the two scientists behind her. Reaching behind her, she picked up the duffle bag and walked over to the DHD. Waiting until it shut down, she began to enter the symbols to access the gate.
Jack, who had come through the gate just before it shut down and was still on the steps, looked at Sam in confusion. "Carter, is there something the matter?"
"No, sir, just going home." Hitting the fifth symbol, she glanced up at him mischievously. "You might want to move, Jack."
He jumped out of the way of the gate, moving a safe distance as she hit the last two symbols and then the central crystal to activate it. "All right, what's going on here?"
"I told you, we're going home. The project's done, there's nothing left to do here." Lifting her arm, she sent signal over the GDO. She shifted her attention back to the Inspector. "Isn't that right?"
That got Jack's attention and set all his alarms off. "Would somebody please tell me what is going here, or do I have to get out some plyers for the teeth?"
"Meet Dr. Zelenka and Dr. Kavanagh." Stepping around Sam, Dr. Petrikov gestured at two men in the Inspector's entourage as if demonstrating a new product. "These men are our replacements." Walking up to Zelenka, she tossed her own dufflebag over his head through the event horizon. "Good luck, comrad, perhaps you get better review."
Adjusting his glasses, Zelenka stared at her hard. "Perhaps if you had not failed, I would not be here."
"Failure is not something I am familiar with, but petty American bureacracy, of that, I've had my fill." Backing away, she saluted him, then stepped around him. She shot Sam a look. "After you."
"Is that so." Spinning on his heel, Jack walked over to Sam. "Well, Major, it looks like I got here just in time. We miss you back home, I'm sure the General will be glad to have you back." He clapped her on the shoulder as they strolled up the dias. "Inspector, I'm sure you can find your own way around."
"Colonel, get back here this instant!" Sharipova, who had been walking off, paused only to yell at Jack without facing him. "That's an order, Colonel!"
Jack cleaned out his ears with a grin. "Do you hear something, Carter?"
"Not a thing, sir." Smiling, they stepped through the gate.
Zelenka sighed. That went better than he had hoped.
Entering the last of the defined parameters for the crystal growth in to the generator control computer, Daniel started to sign off and take away his security by pass. He had hacked the shield generator's controls in the generator complex on the surface. Already, the crystals were growing down in to the mountain towards his lab on level 15. It had to bypass several corridors, but the by the time anyone noticed, it would be too late.
"Are you sure you wish to do this?" Laia, who had been watching Daniel's actions for the past five minutes moved to where he could see her. "Once you activate that device, things will change."
Holding up the palm device, Daniel gave her a sad smile. "There is nothing left for me here."
"The absence of something does not mean there is nothing." Raising her own hands, a similar device appeared over the back of her palm. "I do recognize it, Daniel."
"Forgive me?" He didn't wait for a responce before activating his palm device. In a flash of white light, he disappeared.
"No." Laia touched the device on her hand. Whatever reaction she was expecting, it wasn't what happened. In fact, nothing happened. She stared at it in shock before trying another button. Still, nothing happened. Turning, she raced for the door to the generator complex. She had to warn the others before it was too late.
Sam and Jack stepped through the gate just before it shut down. Smiling at everything around her, Sam took a deep, cleansing breath. "God, it's good to be home!"
"Yep, it is at that." Hands in his pockets, Jack strolled down the ramp. Looking over at Carter, he smirked. "So, how long you been buzzing about that place?"
She was too relaxed to care he knew. "About three weeks. There wasn't much else to do."
"Ah, yes, I know that one intimately. Well, now that you are home, I expect this to stop immedietly, is that clear, young lady?" His tone was teasing, but his expression was anything but.
"Yes, sir." Sam almost saluted him, but she was interupted by a sudden giggle fit. Leaning over to him, she had to hold on or fall over. "Sorry, sir, it's just good to be home!"
"I'm sure. What say we get you cleaned up and rested before the General tears us a new one, hunh?" Jack was about to lead the way to the doors when the lights in the gate room and control room shut down. He jerked to stare at the control room and saw the General highlighted by the security lights. "Sir, what the hell just happened?"
George turned to Sargent Davis in question. "Well?"
"I have no idea, sir. Nothing is responding, the only thing still up is the dialing computer." As he spoke, warning lights in the control room and the gate room came on. "Sir, the stargate has been activated. Someone is dialing out!"
Jack jumped as a flash of white light deposited a FRED transport with trailor loaded down with boxes of supplies and cloth bags hanging off the side filled to the brim. It took him a moment to recognize the goods. "Hey, those are the supplies for that group of touchy feely nerds! Somebody wanna tell me what those freaks are doing with an Asguard teleporter?"
"Actually, Jack, it's an Ancient device." Standing up from the side of the FRED, Daniel tightened the strap holding down the boxes out of a nervous habit.
"Okay wanna tell me what you are doing with an old device?" He started to move towards Daniel, but bounced off a shield back in to Carter's loose grip and nearly knocked them both over. "Ow!"
"Sorry, Jack, but I can't let you interfer." Turning to the gate, Daniel watched as it cycled passed the sixth, then seventh symbols and continue on. "One more and then I'm out of here. I want to thank you, Jack, for trying to make this like it was, but we both know it can never go back."
"Damn it, Daniel, what are you talking about? What's going on here?" Jack shielded his eyes in the sudden light of the gate activating. Moving around what he felt was a safe distance from the shield, he watched Daniel move towards the ramp.
"This, Jack, everything." Daniel hit the switch on the FRED sending it up the ramp and in to the wormhole. "We both know I don't belong here any more. Every day, I am told in a million ways. I am reminded about everything I've lost and will never get back. My old friends can't even talk to me without correcting themselves a hundred times, or stopping to explain every little thing. I'm tired of being the outcast for something I had no control over, Jack."
"What about me? What about Carter, or Teal'c? Don't we deserve the right to see our friend when we want? Are you just going to walk away and leave all of us behind?" Jack swallowed, he loathed to say the next part. "What about Martouf, I thought you guys were doing good, or something?"
But Daniel wasn't listening. His hand was on the palm device and he was starting up the ramp behind the already disappearing trailer.
"Daniel! Damn it, Daniel, answer me!" He heard the doors on either side of the gate room being forced open, but knew whatever assistance they could offer would be too late. "Daniel, so help me, if you don't answer me, I'll never forgive you!"
Slipping through the cracks in the door way, Laia was the first to run in to the room. Holding up her palm device, she aimed it at Daniel and pressed the button. A visible surge happened about him in a ten foot perimeter. "Colonel, now, before it's too late!"
"Daniel!" Jack rushed up the gate followed by closely by Sam and two people he didn't even register. He reached Daniel just as the man stepped through the gate. Without a second's hesitation, he followed the archeologist through.
Coming out on the other side, Jack hit the ground rolling. He tumbled down a series of steps before coming to a stop. He took a second to register everything was still in place before uncurling and sitting up. A short time after that, he heard the gate shut down.
Glancing about him, Jack took in the vast, poorly lit room. All along the walls, crystals glowed in formations that were alien, yet recognizable geometric shapes. What he noticed most were the steps and floor. They were lit up. "Um, I don't think we're in Kansas any more, Daniel."
"Colorado, sir." Sitting up behind him, Sam touched her sore head. It was more from the buzz failing her than the actual landing. Finally noticing the room too, she frowned. "Where are we?"
With a sigh, Daniel turned to face his friends, all four of them. "Um, guys, welcome to Atlantis."