Title:First Contact
Author: princess golux
Fandom: Due South/Stargate SG-1/MfU
Pairing: F/K, N/I (other pairings will be revealed later in the series)
Type: Slash, AU, Action-Adventure, Crossover
Series: Maintain The Right #2
Warnings: Strong language, violence
Spoilers: This is wildly AU so I don't think so. References to "The Tok'Ra"
Disclaimer: Most of these characters are not mine they belong to their respective production companies. All original characters (Trev'van & Shir, Oric & Vosk, etc.) ARE mine and I take full blame for them. I am making no money on this. At all.
Notes: I'm inventing a whole Ônother revolt against the Go'auld. Everything will be explained, I promise. The term "auto-doc" and the idea of having them on scout ships, I lifted from the Liaden novels, then scrambled the idea with SG-1 technology. This is the beginning of a fairly long series. For an explanation of how Fraser and Ray ended up with symbiotes, see The Seeing Red Affair. It's the set-up & prequel to the whole series. It's posted in the Due South section of FF.net.
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First Contact
Oric waited for the Stargate to engage, heart pounding. He'd locked the doors to the Gate chamber scant moments before, but even though the mother ship was running with a pared-down skeleton crew there was always a chance of detection. He gripped his staff weapon tightly as one by one four figures emerged from the event horizon. All wore black; one carried a staff and the other three carried the strange weapons favored by the Tauri. Still, caution ruled his actions; he remained hidden until the Stargate disengaged.
He sized up the intruders; they matched the description he'd been given. One older Tauri male, brown hair graying, keen brown eyes searching his surroundings with fierce concentration. One younger male, soft blue eyes peering through glasses, hair just a touch longer than most warriors would dare. That one bore a small Tauri weapon and a zatn'kitel. One Tauri female, hair blazing yellow under her black cap. And a large dark-skinned Jaffa warrior bearing the gold First Prime mark of Apophis, who could be none other that the infamous renegade, Teal'c.
"I will die free." Oric vocalized the ritual greeting just loud enough to be heard by Teal'c and the nearest Tauri, the well-formed female warrior. She whirled and he caught a glimpse of bright blue eyes before the large bulk of Teal'c interposed himself between them. Teal'c returned his greeting and Oric was suffused with pride as his arm was gripped firmly, warrior to warrior. He struck his heart with his fist, saluting the older Jaffa.
"Greetings, Teal'c, hope of the Jaffa." he said gravely. Privately, despite the danger, Oric was proud to be useful to the cause; he felt older than his relatively young 40 years of age. He introduced himself.
"I am Oric. Master Bra'tec has asked me to assist you."
Teal'c smiled at him and returned the salute. Oric was struck by the older Jaffa's elegance, even in such small gestures. He had not expected a warrior of this reputation to be so effortlessly graceful.
"I thank you for your aid, Oric." Teal'c said, pitching his voice no louder than Oric's. "I am Teal'c of Chulak. These are my comrades in our struggle. Colonel O'Neill, MajorCarter, and DanielJackson."
Colonel O'Neill was the older Tauri male, DanielJackson the younger. MajorCarter was the female, who flashed a brief smile at him. Oric nodded his head to each in turn, projecting a sense of urgency that he hoped would obviate the unintended insult of not greeting each of Teal'c's friends with the same sense of ceremony that he'd offered the other Jaffa. To be certain, he began talking even as he acknowledged the three Tauri.
"We must make haste, honored Teal'c." he said, suiting his actions to his words and moving to unlock the Gate room door. "None of the Jaffa on board knows anything about our current mission except Vosk, First Prime of Nergal. Everyone is curious, everyone seeks information. Although the crew is small and spread out, all eyes are exceptionally keen and all ears are pricked. I feel that we may quickly be running out of time."
"Where are they holding our people?" Teal'c asked.
"Down in the slave hold." Oric replied. "All the rebel Jaffa captured in this raid were placed with the slaves." He knew his eyes were grave. He felt a moment of shame that he could not be of greater assistance, but with the tight schedule necessitated by such a small crew, he dared not be missed. "Go down two levels and continue on the eastern curve. The hold is accessible by both sides, but the guard on the east is Vosk's kin. He is slothful and proud and will not notice you until you are close enough to take him."
Teal'c closed his eyes and gracefully inclined his head. "I am grateful beyond measure for this. I know that you risk much. I am in your debt."
"You have given me an opportunity to serve my people, Master Teal'c. I am the honored one. Now, I must leave. The lift is in the direction I am heading. Follow close behind. I will call out to any I see, to give you warning." Oric's sense of urgency was increasing. He nodded a final farewell and slipped off down the corridor.
Moving from shadow to shadow the four followed.
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Col. Jack O'Neill held up a hand, signaling his team to hold their positions. He studied the entrance to the lift, gauging distance. Tension spiked through him - his sixth sense was screaming. The "caution" button on his inner control panel was lit up like a freakin' Christmas tree. If this mission had been for anyone but Teal'c, Jack would have aborted as soon as he'd heard the bizarre status report from the rebel Jaffa at the Gate. But the normally rock solid presence just behind Jack was vibrating like a kite-string in a hurricane. Teal'c needed his team; needed them right here and right now. There was no real choice, so Jack ignored everything but the corridor in front of him.
Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was rotten in the fucking state of Snake-mark.
Jack glanced across the hall. Major Samantha Carter, her blond hair tucked beneath her black cap, watched him closely, waiting for his signal. Just behind her he could see the outline of their fourth teammate, Dr. Daniel Jackson, weapon ready. Jack jerked his head and Daniel glided around Sam, who kept her P-90 trained down the empty corridor behind them. Jack also watched their six, feeling Teal'c move out in tandem with Daniel. The two disappeared into the ship's lift. Another second and Jack and Sam backed into the lift and they headed down.
Jack couldn't shake his trouble sensor. In the years that the four of them had worked together as the primary exploration and first contact team at Stargate Command, SG-1 had slunk around quite a few of these bronze and gilt flying horror-shows. Jack had never seen one so empty. He kept his face neutral, the only expression that of fierce concentration on the job at hand. But his gut was trying to scale his throat like it was Everest.
They reached the correct level swiftly, Jack and Sam each taking a direction to secure. Daniel and Teal'c flowed to shadows on opposite sides of the hallway, Jack and Sam joining them. This time Jack and Sam took point while Daniel and Teal'c kept rear guard.
Jack spotted the Jaffa guard first and held a hand up. The other three flattened themselves against the walls, blending with the shadows. Jack flipped his cap around to minimize his profile and took a cautious peek around the corner.
One Jaffa stood guard, just as they'd been told. He looked monumentally bored.
This was way, way, way too easy. Jack stomped on his gut one more time and gave a tight nod to Daniel. Daniel had his handgun on him, but it was holstered in favor of the 'z' shaped energy weapon Jack called a 'zat'. It had a longer name but Jack couldn't pronounce it.
For this plan to work at least one of the team needed to be armed with a zat. The alien weapons were relatively silent, their energy bolts taking out enemies with none of the clamor of the projectile weapons Earth produced. They needed to be able to get in and out without anyone realizing they were there; Jack really didn't want to slug it out with an entire shipload of hostile Jaffa.
Still, Sam and Jack both favored the heavier P-90's; adding a zat would have slowed them down. So from here until they got back to the Stargate, Daniel had point.
Daniel poured himself easily around the corner and fried the guard quickly and quietly, using his momentum to gain a sheltered spot near the heavy iron gate of the pen. Teal'c followed, while Carter and Jack held their positions. Jack kept his eyes on the hallway behind his team. Fresh sweat prickled his skin where the backward cap rubbed his forehead. He ignored it. On the other side of the hallway he could see Sam mirroring both his position and his discomfort. Carter shot a quick glance at him, blue eyes huge and tense. Her sixth sense was obviously just as cranky as his was.
The twisting in his gut got worse as he heard a low fierce exchange in the harsh language of the Goa'uld start at the pen door.
For cryin' out loud. We're rescuing you people. Don't argue with us.
"Daniel?" he whispered, his voice making the name both a question and a warning.
"Just a minute, Jack." a fierce whisper from Daniel made Jack's belly cramp harder.
"We don't have a minute, Daniel. Is he there or not?" Jack could feel his attention slipping, the need to somehow force Daniel to go faster conflicting with his defense designation. Years of both training and combat kept him at his post but his pulse was beginning to roar in his inner ear as every single instinct he owned told him to get his team out of there immediately, if not sooner.
"Daniel?" he asked sharply.
"Found him, Jack." Daniel's voice was low and only slightly triumphant. Jack risked a look over his shoulder. The slight form of Teal'c's son Rya'c pressed up against the bars, Teal'c clutching his son's shoulder. Jack felt a shiver of relief.
Almost there.
"Uh, Jack?" Daniel's voice was leveling out, becoming neutral.
"There's a problem."
Every hair on Jack O'Neill's body stood up. Daniel only used that tone when sugar had most emphatically become shit. Both Jack and Sam automatically looked back at Daniel and Teal'c.
"What, Daniel?" Jack demanded.
"The guard doesn't have the keying crystal for the door lock."
"What?"
"There's no key, Jack."
Teal'c and Jack exchanged a quick look and Teal'c backed up and pointed his staff at the pen lock.
A white ball of energy hit the wall next to Carter. All four members of SG-1 instinctively ducked deeper into their respective niches, automatically returning fire. But Jack already knew it was useless. There was no line of retreat except the slave pens and Daniel and Teal'c hadn't had enough time to get them open. Even if they did, the guard on the other side was still alive and well.
They were well and truly fucked. Jack could feel his gut gearing up for inevitable surrender or total annihilation -- preferably the former.
A booming voice carried down the passageway.
"Throw down your weapons and surrender, and I promise a quick death."
"There's an appetizing choice." Jack muttered. Daniel, Sam and Teal'c looked at him, waiting for their next move. Jack took a breath and let it out slowly. Where the hell were the Asgard when you fucking needed them?
"Throw down your weapons now, or I will personally kill every slave on this ship."
Well. That kinda changed the situation.
OK. No it didn't. Not really. Every time SG-1 surrendered to a Goa'uld bad things happened, but they got out more or less intact, while forcing a last stand would needlessly endanger innocent lives.
There really wasn't a choice.
"All right." Jack yelled. "Keep your pants on. We surrender."
He threw his P-90 into the hallway in front of him where it could be easily seen by their attackers. The other members of his team dropped their weapons and all four stood still as they were quickly surrounded by hostile Jaffa. For a moment, all Jack could think was that this was well on its way to becoming a really crappy day.
Then it got worse.
Down the cold bronze hallway lumbered the biggest, scariest, most insane looking goddamed Jaffa Jack had ever seen.
His skin was so intensely white it glowed. His eyes, a strange shade of light green, burned under his metal skullcap. The tattoo on his forehead was white metal, maybe platinum?
And size-wise?
He was epic.
His head came close to the seven-foot mark. He was as wide as the two Jaffa that stood in front of him. Jack could feel his eyes widen and his head start to involuntarily cock to one side. Like, maybe if he changed his perspective he could find a way to wrap his brain around the sheer fucking mass of this guy. Or -- Jack tilted his head the other way, blinking -- maybe not.
Maybe King Jaffa Kong's entire body was built to some massive alien scale that humans just didn't have the capacity to understand yet.
"Daniel?" Jack asked plaintively.
"My god" Daniel breathed behind him.
OK. That was sort of comforting. At least he wasn't imagining this behemoth.
On second thought...maybe not that comforting after all.
All the Jaffa surrounding SG-1 had a vaguely terrified look deep in their eyes. Jack felt even sorrier than usual for this batch. Not only were they pissing their lives away servicing a lying, cheating snake, but they also had to work for this mutated gorilla. He probably ate anyone who pissed him off.
Unfortunately, this self-same gorilla was looking at Jack and his team with a gigantic mouth shaping a smugly pleased smile.
"Well. This is a surprise. The traitor Teal'c and his Tauri masters, no less."
"No one owns me, slave." Teal'c rumbled, then added in the Jaffa tongue. "I will die free."
"Well" the huge Jaffa boomed with evident pleasure, "You will, at the very least, die."
He smirked at Jack "The price I can get for delivering you into the right hands will bring unto my Lord Nergal all the recognition he so richly deserves."
"Well, I can pretty much guarantee you that if I ever meet your master, he's going to get exactly what he deserves." Jack said flatly.
The giant threw back his head and laughed. Jack found the sight mesmerizing.
Also, given the nose hair factor, somewhat repulsive.
"I can see why certain parties are willing to pay handsomely for you." Giant Jaffa seemed even more delighted in Jack's deadpan responses than he was at the discovery that his new prisoners were the infamous Tauri known as SG-1.
He turned to his guards. "Take the shol'va and his master to the communications room. Leave the female here."
Jack feigned a calm he was absolutely sure was probably not humanly possible at times like this. In fact, he was pretty much channeling Teal'c. Splitting up the team was always a bad sign. Someone inevitably got hurt before they could all get out together.
Or died. That was never a laugh riot. Jack tried to remember if this boat had a sarcophagus on it. He didn't think that they'd gotten any intel on it, but the gold box that turned dead people into live ones was virtually standard issue on most mother ships.
Giant Jaffa barked orders at the guards around Jack and Teal'c and they were prodded with staffs. Jack dug in his heels.
"My team stays with me." he said, using his best Colonel voice.
The Giant Jaffa laughed again. He spoke a few words in Jaffa to one of the cringing guards. The only word Jack could understand was "kree' but then again, that really didn't mean much. They always said that. The guard stepped forward and handed Giant Jaffa Daniel's handgun.
Jack met the amused eyes without flinching. Jaffa always had to make a pissing contest out of stuff. Hopefully this guy would admire Jack's balls and keep them together.
Jack's heart sank as a guard dragged Carter further back toward the pens.
Giant Jaffa kept his eyes on Jack's. "You must understand, Tauri, that I have followed your exploits for my Lord. He has noted, on more than one occasion, that you don't like to sacrifice your warriors by leaving them in order to further your own survival."
Without warning, without expression, without fucking looking, he shot Carter.
Both Daniel and Jack flinched. Teal'c didn't move, but his eyes grew very, very hard.
Carter lay on the ground, gasping for air. Her right thigh was bloody. She clenched her jaw against the pain and glared at the huge Jaffa who'd assaulted her. He didn't look back; he was still watching Jack.
"You see, Col., I am going to leave this useful weapon here, with a guard I will be in constant contact with. If you try to escape, your beautiful warrior here will be shot in a different limb for every ten minutes you are gone." he held the gun out and another Jaffa took it. "She's only got three more before I reach her head."
Jack felt his morning coffee rising up, thick in his throat. He deliberately looked away from the assessing gaze of their captor and locked eyes with Carter. Her wide blue eyes were no longer worried. Now they were furious and determined. She clenched her jaw and sent a silent message.
I'm fine, sir.
He let his own eyes answer.
The hell you are, Carter. Keep your head down until I come to get you. And don't get shot again.
I won't, sir.
And don't bleed to death. That's an order.
Yes, sir.
Sometimes the fact that they'd all been in so many life or death situations came in handy. SG-1 had non-verbal communication down to a fucking science.
The smaller Jaffa prodded Jack again. Jack was tempted to think of them as "the wee ones", but recognized the edge of hysteria in that idea and knew he didn't have the time to crack right now. He began to dig in his heels again, then saw that they were prodding Daniel as well. OK, at least he didn't have to worry about
Crap.
They were pulling Daniel in a different direction. The two men realized their respective vectors at the same moment and exchanged a look. The same thought was mirrored in both sets of eyes, blazing out at each other in stereo.
Now what?
"Hey." Jack dug in his heels again. Giant Jaffa raised his communicator.
"Whoa! Take it easy there." Jack said rapidly. The last thing he wanted was for Carter to get a bullet in the other leg. That would really screw their escape plans, big time. "I just want to know why Daniel's not coming with us. Let me guess....his price not worth as much as mine?"
Actually that could work to their advantage. Bad guys who underestimated Daniel tended to end up hurt one way or another.
Or dead, if Daniel had his way. Daniel was a hell of a lot tougher than most snakes gave him credit for, and he really, really hated the Goa'uld.
"I will return Daniel Jackson to you. Later. He will also serve my Lord's plans." Giant Jaffa turned and walked away, trailing the small posse surrounding Daniel. Daniel threw a pointed look back.
Just get Carter out. I'll be fine.
"O'Neill." Teal'c said gravely. "This does not bode well for DanielJackson."
Jack stared straight ahead, grim and determined.
"Ya think?"