SG1-25 Hostile Ground(29)

However, it seemed that Dr. Fraiser’s thoughts were running along the same line. “I’d like to go and check in with the infirmary, sir, but if you’d like me to stop by your office later… ?”

They’d reached the bottom of the ramp and behind the doctor he could see the blast doors open. Harriman headed straight toward him like a man on a mission.

“I appreciate that, doctor,” Hammond said. “Give me a call when you’re done in the infirmary.”

“Yes sir.” And with that, and a smile for Harriman, she was gone.

“Sir,” the sergeant said, turning to walk with Hammond as he headed out of the gate room. All around them the SF’s were standing down and the air had that static fizz he would forever associate with the Stargate. “You have a visitor waiting, General.”

He stopped. “What kind of visitor?” If it was Kinsey —

“It’s General Carter, sir. He arrived about an hour ago.”

Of course. He’d contacted the Tok’ra a couple of days back and wasn’t surprised Jacob had come — the question was, did he come officially or unofficially? And would the Tok’ra offer any help locating SG-1? “Did he come alone?” Hammond said, heading through the blast doors and out into the corridor.

“Yes sir. He’s waiting in the briefing room.”

Hammond nodded and headed up the narrow stairs and into the control room. If Jacob had come alone, then he’d probably come unofficially, which, in turn, probably meant that the Tok’ra couldn’t, or wouldn’t, help — just as Colonel Makepeace had predicted. However, Hammond wasn’t about to rule them out just yet. Jacob Carter had a powerful motive to find SG-1, and help was help, whether or not it was officially sanctioned by the Tok’ra High Council.

“Sergeant?” he said, as he crossed the control room to the stairs. “Bring me everything Dr. Rothman has on the Jaffa symbol Colonel Makepeace retrieved from P5X-104.”

“Yes sir.”

He stopped, one foot on the lowest step. “And Sergeant? See if you can rustle us up some coffee and sandwiches. Common hospitality doesn’t stretch to lunch on Tollana and I haven’t eaten since 0600 hours this morning.”

When he reached the briefing room, he found his old friend sitting at the long conference table, staring out pensively into the gate room. Jacob turned when he heard Hammond enter and rose to his feet. “George,” he said.

“Good to see you, Jacob. Although I wish the circumstances were different.” They shook hands and Hammond took his customary seat at the head of the table, gesturing for Jacob sit back down.

He did, hunched forward and with his hands clenched tight on the table in front of him. There was tension in every line of his body. “I take it there’s no news?”

“No, I’m sorry. We’ve searched P5X-104 but found no trace of SG-1. As far as we can tell from the DHD, Earth was the last planet dialed but the wormhole never connected with our Stargate. Or with the secondary gate, currently in storage in Nevada.”

Jacob nodded. “You have a theory?”

“We have two,” he said, just as Harriman entered with a file tucked under one arm and balancing a tray with two coffees, several sandwiches, and a couple bags of potato chips. The man was a miracle worker.

“Thank you, Sergeant.” Despite the situation, his stomach was growling and only his good manners stopped him from digging in right away. He gestured to Jacob to help himself as he took the file from Harriman. It was a thin file; Dr. Rothman hadn’t managed to find out a great deal, but at least it contained the photographs Makepeace had taken.

Once they were alone again, and he’d taken a couple of bites of sandwich, he turned back to Jacob. “So, I was saying — we have two theories.”

Jacob wasn’t eating. He just sipped his coffee, looking dour and concerned. “Go on.”

“Theory one,” Hammond said, wiping mayo from his fingers. “We think the gate on ‘104 may have been hit by staff-cannon fire which caused the wormhole to skip to another gate somewhere between P5X-104 and Earth.”

“You’ve set up a search?”

“We have teams out right now — it’ll take a week to check all the closest addresses.”

Jacob nodded, frowning. There was an inward-looking expression on his face and Hammond realized he was communing with Selmak. He took the opportunity to finish his sandwich. After a moment, Jacob looked up and said, “What’s your second theory?”

This one, Hammond liked even less. “That the dialing sequence was interrupted before it could connect and SG-1 were captured by the Jaffa on the planet. There was quite a firefight at the gate.”