Chapter 6 – Mice and Men
- Planet: P2X-3YZ (Earth) -
- Washington, DC -
- May 26th 2007 -
- 7:52 am Local Time -
Sam groaned softly and pulled her pillow over her head. "Shut up…"
The cellphone on her nightstand continued to ring despite her plea, the hilarious audio clip of Homer Simpson's snoring doing everything it could to wake Sam from her slumber.
Hnnngggrhhh me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me!
Hnnngggrhhh me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me!
"Go away…" Sam muttered.
Hnnngggrhhh me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me!
Hnnngggrhhh me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me!
Finally unable to endure anymore, Sam pulled the Blackberry phone from the stand and instinctively hit the call button. She jammed the phone under the pillow with her head and muttered. "Carter."
"Get up, breakfast awaits."
Sam smiled despite herself. Jack never minced words. "I just helped defeat a race of beings that even the Ancients were afraid of. Can't I sleep in just this once?"
"Carter. 0900. Everyone's confirmed."
Flinging her pillow aside, Sam looked around her DC hotel room. It was surprisingly comfortable but she missed her cozy little house in Colorado. The sun was just cresting over the horizon and it would shine in her eyes soon enough. She sighed heavily and said. "Alright, sir. Can you send someone to pick me up? I haven't gotten my rental yet."
"I'm in the lobby, Carter. Daniel says hi."
Sam winced and chuckled. Finally aware enough to call herself awake, she checked the clock on the nightstand and saw it was already eight AM. Just enough time to shower, get dressed and out the door before they'd breach and drag her kicking and screaming. "Should have known. I'll be down in a bit."
"Do hurry. Vala's being… Vala."
Sam chuckled and hung up – now to brave the horrors of the hotel washroom.
-9:15 am-
"No no no… Pancakes are so much better than waffles."
Sam felt the edge of her lips rise as Teal'c shifted in his seat at the reply. Jack crossed his arms in defiance beside her, with Cam on her other side. Vala and Daniel sat opposite them as they waited for their orders. The large hotel dining room was mostly empty, Sam was grateful as she'd been worried they'd have a convention and cause her more headache than she needed.
Cam looked the happiest though. He was finally out of bed from his sparring session on Odyssey with what he'd come to call "Terminator Merrick". Sam didn't envy him the honor. The small bandage on his cheek made him look like a boxer – and oddly cute.
Teal'c straightened and clasped his hands together in front of him. "I disagree, O'Neill. Waffles are the superior product."
Jack grumbled and shook his head. "They're messy. They don't melt in your mouth, and every time you take a bite syrup gets all over the place."
"It is a food that requires skill to eat properly. One must bite on the edge of the squares." Teal'c cleared the area ahead of him as the waitress brought the cart with all their food beside. "Regardless, the waffle's unique design maximizes syrup distribution. This alone puts it in a class altogether separate from pancakes."
"What about Crepes?" Vala chimed in as she accepted her plate of the named food. Both Jack and Teal'c stared at her, as if the question was irrelevent to their conversation. "What? It's the best for both of you. Light and fluffy, and filled with delicious cream!"
Beside Vala, Daniel covered his mouth by pretending to rub his chin, Sam swore she could hear his smile. Cam shrugged and helped to pass around the team's food. "She's got a point."
Teal'c turned to Cam with a serious expression. "This conversation does not involve crepes – merely whether pancakes or waffles are a superior choice."
Jack grinned snarkily at Cam. "He's right, keep your frou-frou crepes. Pancakes are perfect. You can even clean your plate with them." Jack mimed wiping his plate with the imaginary pancake. "Get every last bit."
Teal'c rebutted. "With a waffle, you can choose your level of syrup distribution as well as crispness. There will be no need to clean one's plate. With a pancake, it rapidly becomes sodden."
Sam remained quiet and just listened to her two best friends argue. It was great to have a moment in her life when there wasn't anything as important as deciding whether waffles or pancakes were better.
- Planet: P4C-M4N (Leilani) -
- Former LA Outpost -
- May 27th 2007 -
- 3:10 am Local Time -
Dan turned his head in surprise as he watched the woman walk down to the gateroom and nod to their resident gate tech. Phela.. Phal… phil..Phelan! That was his name. He wondered for a moment - he hadn't seen her before, but then seeing that she was carrying a bag with assorted goodies in it, realized who she was.
He strolled down the hall, idly nodding to the four Lucian Alliance workers who'd come to live on the base with them as support staff. It'd been difficult to keep the Lucians from trying to blame the team for what happened with their shock troops and the Ha'tak, but given the Ori's involvement, they'd been able to keep it from devolving into a massacre.
Dan had to admit though, Malcolm was a tactical genius. Instead of meeting directly with the Alliance after the massacre, they'd used a cargo ship with a Stargate inside as a long range communications device. Kiva and her gang had been furious as they'd lost the most people, but in the end, agreeing to a few risky ops against the Ori Remnant had worked out. He may have not liked the Ori weapons, but they made good trade material to the Lucians.
Dan walked up to Garcia's room and knocked on the door. A few moments passed and Garcia's voice screamed. "The hell is it?"
"It's me, homes!"
The sounds of someone getting up came from inside, and soon enough Garcia opened the door. He was dressed in a fine bathrobe and looked tired. "Dan, it's fuckin' one in the morning. The hell you still doing up?"
Dan shrugged. "Couldn't sleep, still sore." Dan stretched his shoulder where he'd pulled a muscle on their latest op. The Ori Staff weapons weren't that accurate, but he still didn't want to know what it felt like to get hit by one. "What's up with you? Who was that woman?"
Garcia rubbed the back of his neck and then chuckled. "Ha, you mean Na'dice? Yeah, met her on that planet we caught Al'Mack on."
Dan raised an eyebrow. "Met?"
"Man's got needs." Garcia shrugged. "Not like there's much choice round 'ere. Rache'd probably feed me my own nuts."
"Ha!" Dan laughed. "Probably." He shook his head idly and sighed. "A'ight, just wanted to make sure you were okay. Sleep tight homes."
Garcia chuckled softly and waved off Dan as he shut the door. Dan sighed and stretched his neck. He'd been having trouble sleeping for the last few days and decided to see if the mess had anything that could help him sleep.
-3:32 am-
"Rache?" Dan mused as he turned into the mess hall. Rachel was already inside sitting in the corner with a kettle. "You couldn't sleep either?"
Rachel shrugged and leaned back against the wall. "That last one was too close. Malcolm's right, fanatics are dangerous." She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Fucking religion."
Dan smirked and slowly pulled out a chair to sit across from Rachel. "Not a God person?"
Rachel shook her head and took a sip of the herbal smelling tea. "God… is indifferent." She set her cup down and sighed. "You ever wonder exactly how fucked up things are back home? All those people so sure they know who and what God is?"
"Yeah…" Dan rubbed his chin as he looked at the kettle. "You mind?"
Rachel shrugged again. "Doesn't work, but go ahead."
Dan poured himself a mug of the tea. He noted a few more workers behind him cleaning up and maintaining the Ha'tak's mess hall, and that Rachel was still keeping her back to a solid wall. "So whatchu wanna do till Malcolm and Garcia figure out what to do next? Ori are gone, Jaffa are still fucked up. Lucians are…"
"Don't." Rachel interrupted tersely.
"Hmm?"
"Don't."
Dan narrowed his eyes and took a sip of the tea. "Don't what?"
"Don't flirt with me. Don't try and be my friend when all you want is sex." Rachel said it calmly, Dan couldn't tell if he was surprised or relieved that she'd finally come out and said it.
Dan sighed and set the tea down. "Is that what you think this is? I just want your ass?"
"What else could you want?" Rachel muttered. "What else does anyone want from me?"
Dan set his cup down and clenched his jaw. He'd thought that maybe a little spat and this would be over, but evidently Rachel wasn't going to give him an inch. "Look, I don't know fuck all what happened to you, but don't assume you know me either."
Rachel scoffed. "Oh? You're a marine. You probably just broke your ROE and got kicked out. Big deal."
Dan breathed in deeply, his fists clenched now as he recalled what got him discharged from the Marines. "You wanna know what got me kicked out? You really wanna know?" He looked up at Rachel who still sneered at him. "You ever make it back home. Back to Earth… you go to Sarajevo. You drive north 'bout an hour. There's a little side road where a Serb field base used to be. You drive ten minutes and you'll hit a bigass pothole in the road." Dan paused for a moment before finishing. "It took me three hours to dig out that hole. 'nother two to fill it back up." He brushed the cup back to the side and got up. "You're not the only one who left shit behind, and maybe I talk to you because Garcia's a fucking psycho and Leach is even worse – can't talk with him at all." He looked down at the kettle and scoffed, a slight rush of adrenaline going through his veins. "You were right. It didn't work."
With that, Dan stormed off leaving Rachel behind with a silent expression
- Planet: P2X-3YZ (Earth) -
- The Pentagon -
- May 27th 2007 -
- 7:52 am Local Time -
Jack sighed deeply, he was quite content. The Ori were all but gone, the Jaffa were rebuilding, and all was quiet again.
He had a few meetings with some crazy scientist people who wanted to talk about some information on the Stargate they'd found in Atlantis' database, but that wasn't for awhile. He had cringed on seeing their plan to try and leech the smarts of everyone in the gaming industry, but it wasn't his problem. At least not yet.
He heard a knock at the door to his office. Jack straightened his posture just in case it was someone important. "Who is it?"
"It's Colonel Mitchell, sir!"
Jack instantly deflated. Not that he was disappointed, but Cam wasn't exactly at the top of his 'people to straighten his posture to.' "Door's unlocked!"
Cam entered the room, quickly followed by Sam and Daniel who looked around the messy office. Jack smiled softly seeing them both wince, a messy office looked like a busy office, Jack had learned that quickly. "Three on one? Hardly fair."
Daniel snorted softly and shook his head. "This is important, Jack."
Daniel looked over at Sam who nodded idly. "We were hoping you could help us, sir."
"Something we wanna get done before the next galaxy wide catastrophe, sir." Cam interjected with a smirk.
Jack already knew what they were after, but he was in a playful mood. Why call when he could check and get an even bigger pot in the end? "Ah… T? Vala?"
Sam breathed in sharply and grinned nervously. "Busy. Vala wanted to do some shopping while she was here and Teal'c… volunteered… to go with her."
Jack's lip crept up in amusement. "Really?"
Daniel sighed and batted the issue aside with a wave of his hand. "We drew straws; but this involves them too. It's something that we've been aware of for months but haven't had a chance to track down."
"Bocce?" Jack loved being obfuscating – especially to Daniel.
Sam saw right through it, just like Jack knew she would. "Yes, but the Tok'ra are on that case. We're talking about the rogue RedScope team. They're still on the loose and with the Ori gone now, we can divert resources to tracking them down."
Cam nodded and added. "We're asking for your help, sir. Just one last thing SG-1 wants to get out of the way before things get too busy again."
Jack raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Again?"
Daniel grit his teeth, finally understanding what Jack was doing. "Jack! "
Feeling quite amused with himself, Jack held up a finger and reached into his desk. He rummaged around for a moment before pulling out a small folder. He tossed it across the desk to near Cam. "Already approved – IOA wants those people caught and you've got a blank check."
Cam visibly deflated in relief, he shook his head idly and chuckled. "Thank you, sir." He picked up the folder and looked to Daniel. "Come on, Vala's probably ruined your credit again."
Jack smiled and waited until they began to move away. "Carter, stay for a minute."
Sam turned to Jack, then to Cam and Daniel. "I'll catch up. We're still on for lunch." Both Cam and Daniel nodded, and Sam moved back to across the desk from Jack. "How long did you know?"
Jack shrugged. "Since we sent you after em the first time. IOA knows it's important." He took a deep breath and sighed. "This isn't about RedScope. It's about you."
Sam raised her eyebrows and sat down. "Me? What about me?"
Jack looked at Sam carefully. When Woolsey had explained the situation, he wasn't surprised that they'd wanted Sam on the case. "The IOA wants you to assist with the Atlantis Expedition - Midway to be exact."
Sam nodded idly, unsurprised. "Well I did help design it. McKay's been handling the software and…." That's when it finally hit Sam, and she paused before finishing. "…They want me to help build Midway?"
Jack nodded. "Along with Bill."
Sam's smile shifted into a nervous state. Alone with Bill Lee in between galaxies didn't sound like the most fun ever, but Jack could see the excitement behind Sam's eyes at the thought of the station itself. "Well… that'd mean I'd have to leave SG-1. Rejoin Area 51?"
Jack shrugged again. "Not this time, they want to keep you front line military. Atlantis might need more support soon and there's always more 304s being built."
Sam furrowed her brow. "Uhh.. So I've got a choice?"
Jack drummed his fingers on his desk and kept his smile. "Not exactly, but they want you on something more…" Jack made air quotes. "…important…than SG-1."
Jack saw the recognition in Sam's eyes. She spoke softly. "So no more SG-1?"
"Nope. It's Mitchell's now. Teal'c is leaving soon too, Daniel's probably going to take a desk job."
Sam nodded idly. "I knew about Teal'c and Daniel..." Sam chuckled. "He needs a break. He's been through a lot and I don't blame him wanting some time to himself." Sam lost her smile and stared at Jack. "How soon do they want me on Midway?"
Jack shifted his chin about for a moment, and then said. "Four weeks. I left that out of the folder I gave Mitchell."
Sam breathed in deeply, and then got up. "That's not a lot of time. They could be anywhere-"
"It's all I could get." Jack interrupted. He looked up at Sam and pumped his fists. "Four weeks. You find that team and you drag them back here.. by any means necessary."
Sam saw that it wasn't just Jack saying it, it was General O'Neill. "Yes, sir."
- Planet: P4C-M4N (Leilani) -
- Former LA Outpost -
- May 30th 2007 -
- 7:28 pm Local Time -
Dan cursed softly as he washed his hands in the large communal bathroom the Ha'tak had. These crazy water misting faucets took forever, but he could understand why it was so conserved. The Jaffa grease he'd used to lubricate the HK416 he'd found in their remaining cache from RedScope's offworld base got everywhere and it was hell to get it off.
The twin drum magazine let him hold a full hundred rounds which was useful against Jaffa or Ori Remnant who still used non-reloading energy weapons.
He idly wondered when Earth was going to come up with an energy weapon that could replace all these projectile weapons, maybe he'd even live to see it happen one day. For now though, he just scrubbed his hands and then splashed his face.
Malcolm had gone on some trip to see if they could get any more work from the Lucians, which basically left the base unattended. Even the Lucians were scared of Malcolm.
As he dried his hands with a towel and headed to the exit, the doors opened in front of him – Rachel standing there with her arms crossed. "Whoa." Dan narrowed his eyes at her. "Ambush?"
Rachel sighed irritably and motioned with her head. "Come on."
Dan worried for a moment but followed anyway. Rachel looked strange in her comfortable homemade Jaffa style clothes. It certainly left more to the imagination than the stuff they'd stolen from Ish'ta. Dan then thought about his own clothes. It'd been months since he'd worn proper Earth boxers and it was getting annoying.
Rachel led him around the grounded Ha'tak, eventually ending up in the top observation room where they had a full view of their surroundings. A few Jaffa couch equivalents were stashed here as well as a coffee table of sorts he'd put together from some select pieces of wood. He quietly followed Rachel's moves and sat down opposite her,
She didn't look happy, not that she did most of the time anyway. But there was something different, She wasn't her usually angry self, more resigned. Dan worried for a moment, but Rachel spoke quietly. "Why'd you kill him?"
Dan furrowed his brow. "Who?"
"Him." Rachel insisted. "The pothole in Sarajevo."
Dan hesitated a second, and turned away. The gas giant nearby looked like a nice place to hide. "Long story."
"So's mine." Rachel countered. "You said it, we've all got stories. What is it you Americans say? 'Show me yours and I'll show you mine'?"
Dan muffled his laugh with a cough and pinched the bridge of his nose. He'd been expecting some kind of reprisal for his comments to her a few nights ago but this was taking the cake. "Yeah something like that." Dan sighed. "Long story short. Fucker killed my parents. Took me years to track him down and well… Bosnia was on and I was a peacekeeper." He rubbed his forehead at the sudden headache. "It's funny, both my proudest moment and worst crime are one and the same."
Rachel said nothing, she merely looked down at the table in contemplation. It took her a few moments but eventually she said. "I can understand that. I was… close to my parents."
"Not me." Dan muttered. Seeing Rachel's confused look, he explained. "They sent me state-side when I was a kid, grew up in DC. Again, long story short, the Marines turned a wannabe Scarface into a real killer." Again, Rachel was quiet. Dan wasn't happy with that and added. "So… now you know. So what's up your ass?"
Rachel's fists clenched and her arms flexed. Dan could see the hatred in her eyes boil over, but not at him. "Lebanon." Rachel said through clenched teeth. "I was IDF. Turned Mossad. Like you say, long story short; I got caught…" Her fists were shaking now, Dan could see she was beyond furious. "…Took me a month to break out."
Dan didn't need to ask. Rachel's personality more than said what had happened. "You kill em?"
Rachel nodded and looked back at Dan's face. "It's funny what a person can do when they don't feel anything anymore. You hear all about war crimes, civvies getting killed." Rachel paused and swallowed. "Soldiers get it worse. I didn't even have to go AWOL, they just let me leave."
Dan winced. "I thought IDF was pretty good with that."
Rachel took a deep breath and shook her head. "They are, but it didn't matter." She bowed her head again and rubbed her mouth, Dan didn't like the way Rachel seemed suddenly vulnerable, a nerve had been touched and she was on a hair trigger.
Dan said nothing else, this wasn't a situation he was used to and even more, Rachel was unstable. He didn't know whether to walk away as he normally would, or try and console her. In the end he went with the safest thing to do – nothing.
- Planet: P1C-T4R (Eldross) -
- Free Jaffa Settlement -
- June 13th 2007 -
- 8:16 pm Local Time -
Two weeks now, Sam was getting a little worried that she'd be shunted off to Midway before putting this behind her. She knew from experience that leaving something unresolved like this had a tendency to come and bite her in the ass later on in life. Now she and most of SG-1 were waiting in the shadows of the night filled forest, a Jaffa village not far off.
Cam sat with his back to a tree and an FN-SCAR in his hands. Reynolds' report said the Rogues had impressive body armor and the heavier rounds would come in handy just in case. Vala rested her head and snored softly on Daniel's shoulder while the archeologist read a book, all of them waiting for the biggest part of SG-1.
Sam noted a cloaked figure approaching them from the village. She pushed off her leaning position. "Any luck?" Sam asked, leaning back on the tree in the shadows.
Teal'c moved in closer, the rest of SG-1 stirred to life. Teal'c was dressed in his Jaffa robes and trying to remain inconspicuous, Sam found it amusing that a man as large as him could be so stealthy. "Indeed. Several villagers reported that a group of heavily armed Tau'ri traveled here to trade. They exchanged Ori Weapons and armor in exchange for food and other necessities."
Cam got to his feet and asked. "Ori? Damn… they've been busy."
Sam turned back to where Daniel helped Vala up who rubbed her eyes. Vala asked drearily. "Do we know where they are? I'm getting tired of sitting these waits out."
Daniel snorted and gently brushed off some errant leaves and twigs that had gotten caught in Vala's hair. "Should have brought you a pillow."
Sam held her tease inside, and kept on subject. "Teal'c, did they say anything about when they were coming back?"
Teal'c nodded. "Not exactly. One of them, Na'Dice, is contacted by one of the rogue team on occasion. She's taken to their base to do work for pay. The Rogue team evidently has a large outpost as well as a hired support staff."
Daniel sighed. "Damn, they have been busy."
Sam interjected. "Do we have any idea where they are? Are they coming back anytime soon?"
Teal'c shook his head. "Na'Dice was not very forthcoming. She simply said that when she is called, she's taken to several worlds blindfolded first in order to keep the Rogue Team's outpost a secret."
Sam kicked the dirt out from underneath her in frustration. "Drat."
- Planet: P4C-M4N (Leilani) -
- Former LA Outpost -
- June 14th 2007 -
- 5:23 pm Local Time -
Malcolm was looking at this new map Kiva had gotten him for a Free Jaffa Outpost that had a large supply of Naquadah – a steaming cup of tea beside him. A raid on it would be difficult, but Kiva had promised stronger support including a Ha'tak. With some doing, they could easily take it over and steal what they needed before things went pear-shaped.
He sighed and leaned back on his chair in the office he'd set up for himself. Sipping his tea, he looked around. There were dozens of papers and a computer console set up, enough equipment to operate an entire forward field base. He'd also been building up knowledge and contacts, even among the Tok'ra and SGC operatives in the Lucian Alliance. It was amusing to him, he could typically tell who was on whose side from the way they spoke and acted.
The doors behind him chimed, and he turned his head. "Who is it?"
"Garcia. We need to talk."
Malcolm grumbled softly, Garcia wasn't his favorite person but unlike the Tok'ra or SGC operatives, he certainly could act the part better. "Yeah, one moment, keep your britches on." He got up and moved over to the door, it unlocked and Garcia stood there with his arms crossed. "What is it?"
"We have a problem." Garcia began, his face serious. "The SGC is on to us. One of my contacts just told me that a large black Jaffa questioned her a few days ago. Sound familiar?"
"Not that whore you've been bringing here is it?"
"And if it is?" Garcia defended. "What difference does it make? They're sniffing closer."
Malcolm took in a deep breath and sighed. "SG-1. I've been expecting this." Malcolm looked back at his office and his desk. There was one paper there that he'd been hoping not to use. "Come in, we'll need to talk before letting the team in on this."
Garcia narrowed his eyes. "Whatcha got planned?"
Malcolm smirked. "How do you get a dog to stop following you?"
"Toss it a bone?" Garcia ventured.
Malcolm checked his groan and turned away. "You kick it hard."
- Planet: P1C-T4R (Eldross) -
- Free Jaffa Settlement -
- June 16th 2007 -
- 1:21 pm Local Time -
Cam wasn't sure what to make of this. "I thought you said she didn't want to talk about it?"
Teal'c simply stared back at Cam as they sat in the bar on this neutral Jaffa planet. "I am not sure what to make of this Colonel Mitchell." He looked across at Sam and Daniel who drank simple cups of water. "Na'Dice does not seem like a very forthcoming woman. I would not be surprised if the Rogue Team were using her as a means of distracting us."
Sam sighed. "A false lead? Bread crumbs in the wrong direction?"
Taal'c nodded. "Indeed, or perhaps something more sinister."
Daniel rubbed his forehead. "A trap."
Cam shook his head and looked over to the bar. Vala was still arguing with the barkeep over something or other. He didn't want to get involved since he knew he'd just end up with a bigger headache. "So what? Should we follow this intel? It's just a planet with some Jaffa outpost on it. If anything we might be able to talk Rak'nor and Bra'tac into helping us take them down."
"I do not believe that to be wise, Colonel Mitchell." Teal'c said. "Contacting the Free Jaffa will reveal more than we need to. We may scare away the rogue team who likely know we are after them. This may be our only chance to capture them, even if it is a trap."
Cam drummed his fingers on the table. He didn't like the way he was being led around by this rogue team, but he didn't see much other option. "Anyone wanna back out, no worries. I'm going after them."
To Cam's shock, a hand came down on his shoulder and squeezed. "Oh cheer up Cameron." Vala said with a smile as she set down a tray filled with assorted goodies. "Since when have we ever let you face death alone?"
The team chuckled softly at Vala's antics, but no one backed out. Cam smiled despite himself and grabbed a likely looking fruit pastry thing and popped it in his mouth. If Vala was in, they all were.
- Planet: P4C-M4N (Leilani) -
- Former LA Outpost -
- June 17th 2007 -
- 2:43 pm Local Time -
Malcolm finished detailing his plan to the rest of his team as they sat in the briefing room. It was obvious, it wasn't smooth, and it certainly wasn't without its drawbacks, but some lines had to be drawn and this was one of them. "I've already set it up with the Lucians. If Garcia's whore did her job, then the Lucians and Earth will find each other over that planet."
Drake shifted uncomfortably around in his seat, as did Rachel. Malcolm wasn't surprised that Garcia wasn't affected by the plan. Garcia said. "Earth'll wipe the floor with the Lucians. No way we'd accomplish that mission."
Malcolm nodded. "Exactly, and we'll drag Earth into a bigger conflict with the Alliance. With the Ori gone, they're the biggest threat but Earth isn't paying attention to them. They're after us of all people and ignoring the big bad wolf at the door."
Rachel tented her fingers and breathed calmly. "What about SG-1? They'll be there waiting for us."
Malcolm smiled, this was where the real brilliance of his plan came into effect. "HVPs. But that doesn't mean don't rough them up. Killing them would put us at Earth's most wanted list. They'd forget everything else and hunt us down like foxes."
Drake furrowed his brow. "Foxes?"
Rachel groaned softly and explained. "A fox hunt. God have you ever read a book?"
Drake shrugged in reply. "Playboy, but I don't think that counts as reading."
Garcia chuckled, and Rachel groaned softly. Malcolm did note that she didn't even seem bothered by Drake's quips anymore. Maybe they really were learning to work together. "SG-1 has to survive. So no head shots, no armor piercing rounds, no explosives. We trap them, rough them up and leave. Let Earth, the Jaffa, and the Lucians fight it out. We won't be involved." Malcolm saw the understanding in his team's eyes. It was a complicated mission with everything that could go wrong, but if everything went right, then their lives would remain uncomplicated for the foreseeable future.