SG-1 /SGA Crossover, No Place Like Home, Chapter 7

[maranya14]

No Place Like Home

Chapter 7

See Chapter 1 for summary and disclaimer.

The worst thing about working in Washington, General O'Neill reflected, was having to wear the damn service uniform all the time.

Richard Woolsey was fidgeting in the seat next to him, clutching a stack of manila folders.

"You don't have to look so nervous, you know. He already knows you didn't vote for him," Jack said. "He's not going to let that bother him."

"That isn't what I'm concerned about! It's just that I'm not sure I have the numbers correctly organised at such short notice," said Woolsey, in a harassed tone. Then he turned sharply to O'Neill. "Wait - what do you mean, he knows I didn't vote for him?" 

"I'm sure he's guessed it. He's a really bright guy. I mean, look at the way you dress. You probably iron your underwear, for crying out loud."

Before Woolsey could summon up an adequate retort, the cheerful young woman who had seated them came back into the room.

"He's ready for you now, gentlemen."

Jack got to his feet and pulled his uniform straight. "Come on, Richard. It's showtime!"

*****

Meanwhile, back at the SGC...

"I'm pretty sure it's Ronon's turn to get smacked around," Sheppard grumbled. "Ronon's turn to get some exercise," he amended, after a glance at Teyla's face.

"Ronon is busy. He promised Daniel that he would assist him in updating the language database with the Old Satedan Hand," said Teyla. "Besides, you need this more than he does. Ronon is quite proficient in the Athosian style now," she added, with a quick twirl of her fighting sticks.

By the time they reached the SGC's martial arts gym, they found it already occupied. From the way his T-shirt was plastered to his back, Mitchell had been sparring with Teal'c for a while. The Jaffa warrior on the other hand, had barely broken a sweat. Teyla looked at their weapons with great interest: long staves with rope padded ends. Mitchell wasn't doing too badly, Shappard noted. He'd seen Teal'c and Ronon spar, and from his own experience, it was no picnic going up against either of them with a staff.

As they watched, Mitchell tried a complicated looking manoeuvre, aiming a thrust at Teal'c's neck, pulling back and ducking the other man's block, and then whirling the weapon around for a strike at his side. Teal'c stepped sideways, blocked the strike, and brought the end of his own staff up to tap his opponent's chin, making his teeth click together audibly. Sheppard winced in sympathy - the big guy had clearly pulled his punch, but it would still hurt.

"Damn!" said Mitchell, lowering his weapon and bending over, panting for breath. "Still haven't got that move down."

"It was a good attempt," Teal'c responded calmly. "You merely pulled back from the feint too early, before I had committed myself to counter the blow. An instant longer, and my side would have been unguarded."

"Yeah. I'll remember that for next time," he said, straightening up. "Ow," he complained mildly, feeling at his jaw.

"That is an interesting style," Teyla commented, to Teal'c. "It appears different than the one you used against Ronon the other day."

"It is a Sodan technique," he explained. "This fighting style was long neglected by the Jaffa until Colonel Mitchell encountered the Sodan some years ago. Since then, we have revived its practice, as have many of the Jaffa."

"Some of us need more practice than others," Cameron put in, rolling his shoulders with a grimace of discomfort.

Sheppard looked over at Teyla's fascinated expression and realised that he might have found a way to avoid the usual bruising at her hands.

"You know, it might be interesting to try your sticks up against that staff," he said casually.

"Indeed," Teal'c said, a glimmer of interest breaking through his stoic demeanour.

"If you are willing to spar, I would take as a kindness," Teyla said.

Teal'c inclined his head with his customary courtesy, and gestured her into the ring. John managed to contain his whoop of inner glee, and then caught Cameron's knowing grin, as the other man replaced his staff in the stand next to the door. "Better him than you, huh?" he whispered, his back to the other two in the room.

"She needs to let off steam, and Ronon's busy right now," Sheppard replied, his voice low. "Anyway, I try not get beaten up more than twice a week," he said, and turned his attention back to watching the sparring session.

After trying a few exploratory blows that were easily parried, Teyla was circling the tall Jaffa, and adjusting her grip on her sticks. "I have not seen footwork like that before. Some of the marines on Atlantis use staves to fight, but their style is very different." She launched a flurry of rapid, assymetrical strikes.

"This discipline is somewhat different from the techniques the Jaffa developed after the Sodan were cut off from us," said Teal'c, switching rhythms to parry with little apparent effort. "As I said, I have but recently begun to practice it myself."

"It is elegant," said Teyla, beginning to alternate kicks with the strikes. "And flexible as well," she went on to note, as Teal'c responded by moving into the attack, using his greater reach to push her back.

That was the end of the conversation for a while, as both participants stepped up the tempo.

"Something on Teyla's mind?" Mitchell asked, as the speed and intensity of the bout increased. He could see Teal'c was exerting himself now.

"General Landry told us that Daedalus will be heading to the Pegasus Galaxy for a recon mission, to see what the status is with the Wraith, check in with some of our allies. They're leaving next week."

"So Teyla and Ronon..."

"Need to decide whether they want to head back with the ship. This may be their last chance for a few months. Now that there's no need to resupply Atlantis, there won't be regular runs to Pegasus and back."

"I hear Woolsey submitted a proposal to set up an Alpha site on the same planet where the Athosians settled," Mitchell commented.

"Yeah, the IOA's 'examining the proposal'," said Sheppard. "But it's still up in the air."

"I can see that makes things difficult," said Mitchell, sympathetically.

"It's rough on Teyla, with her family and her people back there, and her team over here. To be honest, Cam - I'm not sure how to help. It's easier with Ronon, you know? Teyla needs to - talk, and stuff. I'm trying, but I'm not really good at that."

"Maybe Teal'c can help. He's been in a similar situation, had to leave his people to work with the SGC - they've got that in common. Big guy's a really good listener, too."

Sheppard looked thoughtful. "You might be right. Would you..."

Mitchell nodded. "I'll have a word with him. Right after..." He paused. "How long do you think they're going to be at this?"

The bout showed no sign of lessening in intensity. Teyla was grinning in fierce delight, and despite the stoic facade that most people couldn't read, Cameron knew Teal'c well enough to see how much he was enjoying himself.

"Could be quite a while," Sheppard realised.

"Yeah. I'm gonna get a shower, talk to Teal'c later. If you're planning to stick around, you might as well get comfortable," said Mitchell, tossing him a bottle of Gatorade. Sheppard caught it, gave it a dubious look, and then settled down on one of the benches to watch.

"I am glad you are staying, John," Teyla called, her gaze never leaving her opponent. "I have not forgotten our sparring session. You may wish to warm up."

"Oh. That's great. Thanks," Sheppard said, trying to keep his chagrin from showing. It looked like he would be collecting a set of bruises after all.

*****

Later the same day, both SG-1 and Sheppard's Atlantis Recon teams were assembled for a briefing with General Landry, discussing their findings on the 'greenhouse planet', as Mitchell had taken to describing it.

"We did get some important information, sir," said Samantha Carter. "Even though we didn't quite meet the mission objective."

"I understand the botany department found the material from the Ancient lab very interesting," General Landry said.

"Oh sure, the phytopathologists are all thrilled - apparently they're one step closer to finding the cure for tomato mosaic disease. Hallelujah. That's going to be one giant leap for mankind," McKay grumbled.

"Actually, I'm told they may be able to use the data to help contain serious crop diseases that are affecting yields in some of the world's poorest nations, McKay. Plus, the Ancients had a very advanced understanding of ecology on the macro as well as micro level," said Sam, in a reproving tone.

"Solving problems like world hunger or global deforestation sounds like 'a giant leap for mankind', Rodney," Sheppard pointed out, grinning.

"Yes, well, that's not what she meant by interesting information," Rodney said, dismissing this with an irritated wave. "Get to the good part, Sam."

"By all means, Colonel - get to the good part," Landry said drily.

"Some of the information was negative: the planet did, at one time, house an older research facility that was dedicated to energy research, but it had since been moved," Sam explained. "The Ancients then terraformed the entire planet, introducing plant species of their choosing, and studying them under controlled weather conditions. After several millenia of research, they abandoned the planet completely. Obviously, by the time the Goa'uld arrived, there were only a few remains from the second research facility."

"Yes, yes, but more to the point, we were able to cross-reference one of the two other gate addresses that Daniel's team found at the archive in the Ida galaxy," said McKay, in a rush. Sam gave him a speaking look. "Sorry! I'll let you tell it," McKay said hastily.

"As I was going to explain, sir," Sam went on, with elaborate patience, "Once we accessed the data from the Ancient console, we found a reference to one of the other two planets we were planning to explore, the one we've designated P7T-943. It seems the Ancients had a shipyard there, one where they were building Aurora-class vessels."

"Ah. Anything to do with Ancient ship design could be extremely useful, and finding actual Ancient warships would be even better," Landry said.

"Not to mention, Aurora-class ships are powered by ZPMs, sir," Mitchell put in. "It could be an answer to our problems in more ways than one."

"It could be, yes," the general said, pursing his lips thoughtfully. "But what if the Goa'uld got to this shipyard first?"

"It's pretty unlikely, General: there's no indication in Telchak's records that he ever found the Ancient database in the lab," Daniel said. "We wouldn't have either, except that we had someone along with the ATA gene. Also, as far as we know, P7T-943 doesn't fall under the territories claimed by any of the Goa'uld system lords."

"Plus, we did send a MALP through, there are no signs of any current inhabitants, let alone Goa'uld, anywhere near the Stargate. It's worth a shot, sir," said Mitchell, in a persuasive tone. "On the off chance that some minor Goa'uld did occupy the planet at some point, we haven't let that stop us before."

"It's still a risk, even if a minor one," Landry said. "But you have a provisional go-ahead: I'll figure out how to handle the IOA."

"You think the IOA'll have some objection, sir?" asked Sheppard, curiously.

"The only reason I've been able to over-ride their concerns about putting both our front-line teams in harm's way at the same time, is that they're as desperate to find ZPMs to power Atlantis as anyone else," Landry said.

"I understood that most members of the IOA were not convinced of the need to return Atlantis to the Pegasus Galaxy," said Teyla, with a puzzled frown.

"They're not," Landry confirmed. "With the uncertain status of the Antarctic Weapons Platform, they see Atlantis as Earth's best defence against any future invasions. But the fact is, without the ZPMs to power her, she's not much good to us here either."

"Great. So let's say we bust our butts and somehow manage to find the ZedPMs we need, and we could still be stuck here," said McKay. "I thought Woolsey was supposed to fix things with the IOA!"

"I think he's working on it, Rodney - and so are a few other people," Sheppard said, with a glance at the General. "We can cross that bridge when we come to it. So what do you say we focus on the task at hand, and leave the politics to people higher up the ladder?"

"Hmpf. The perils of command," said Landry, with a satirical puff of laughter. "Speaking of which, I have a conference call with General O'Neill in ten minutes," he went on, getting to his feet. Sheppard and Mitchell rose as well. "Colonels, prep your teams to go offworld tomorrow. Let's see if P7T-943 holds the answer to at least one of our problems."

*****

"You can't be serious, Jack!" General Landry exclaimed.

"No, no - I really can. Sometimes. In fact, I'm being serious now. Which proves that I can. Be serious, that is." There was a telltale whirr on the other side of the telephone line that suggested O'Neill was playing with his yo-yo.

"There's no way you'll be able to swing the support you'll need from the IOA," Landry said.

"We've got someone on our side who thinks we can," Jack responded, sounding inordinately cheerful. "He promised to pull some strings."

"You mean..."

"Richard and I had a chat with the President today. So I have some good news... and more good news."

*****