“Sir, I think Colonel Makepeace is right. Distasteful as it is, it’s our only choice.”
Hammond was silent for a moment. “And what if Maybourne won’t give us the address?”
“He will if it’s his only way off the planet.”
“General, let me bring him in,” Makepeace said, his voice thick with anger. “As soon as we get the address we can start the evacuation — we can save lives, sir.”
Hammond didn’t turn around, but she could see him struggling with the decision as he ran a hand over his jaw, shaking his head. He had no choice, not really, but Janet knew this must feel like defeat — after all the times he’d fought for the integrity of Stargate Command, he was being forced to accept that Maybourne’s shady operation was the best hope for saving their people. The very outfit that had brought about this catastrophe was going to claim to be their saviors. Her own disgust was visceral.
With a heavy sigh, Hammond turned around and she felt heartsick at the bleak look he directed at Makepeace. “I suppose you know just where to find him, do you, Colonel?”
It was an odd question, but it made Makepeace flinch. His hard features grew harsher, his skin grayer. He swallowed. Janet watched his Adams apple bob up and down. “I can find him, sir,” he said stiffly. “Let me bring the bastard in.”
For a long beat the two men just stared at each other, locked in silent communication, and then Hammond gave a slight nod. “Do it,” he said in a leaden voice. “And make it fast, the attack could start at any moment.”
“Yes sir. Thank you, sir.”
“We’ll lock down the mountain in two hours,” Hammond added. “Make sure you’re back.”
“Count on it, sir.” And with a curt nod to Janet, Makepeace was gone.
She watched him stride across the briefing room, running down the stairs, and let the echo of his footsteps fade before she stood up and moved to stand next to General Hammond. He’d turned back to his contemplation of the Stargate and as she joined him she could just glimpse its arc through the briefing room window — still hopeful, even now.
“Do you think they’ll come back, sir?”
He gave a slight smile, but didn’t look away from the Stargate. “SG-1 always comes back.”
She nodded. “What about you, General? Will you take command of the alpha site?”
“No. My place is here.” Folding his arms behind his back at perfect parade ground rest, he straightened his shoulders and looked exactly as he always looked during the long wait for his people to come home. “I’ll keep a light on for SG-1,” he said, “even if I have to die trying.”
Janet nodded because that’s exactly what she’d expected to hear. Turning her eyes back to the Stargate, emotion tightened her throat as she said, “With permission, sir, I’d like to stay too.”
“Doctor —”
“SG-1 are coming back, General, and I want to be here to see it.”
“To welcome them home?”
She threw him a sideways glance. “To kick their asses for being so damn late, sir.”
It was quiet in the camp, and dark. The moonless, starless sky hung black and featureless overhead and the fires of earlier in the evening had burned low despite the cold. The sounds of shifting, shuffling humanity were all around, the distant cry of an infant quickly hushed, the soundscape of sleep. But no one was out; there was no movement, no campfire discussions, no laughter. Everything spoke of fear and of hiding from the monsters under the bed.
Except here the monsters were real.
She’d been dreaming of it — the creature’s hand stabbing into her chest, its bared teeth inches from her face — when Daniel had woken her for her watch, his concerned face half hidden by shadows cast up by the dying fire. And even now she could feel the burning on her chest that should have meant her death, that would have meant her death if it hadn’t been for Jolinar. How strange, she thought, that that nightmare had protected her from this one.
She sat outside now, her sleeping bag wrapped around her shoulders against the biting cold, and looked up at the Amam’s ship. It was almost the only thing she could see in the black night, an eerie light seeping from where it squatted on the skirts of the mountain. But as vile as it was, Sam was drawn to the mystery it represented. These creatures were like nothing they’d ever encountered, their weapons and their technology were completely new and she itched to take one of the stun guns apart and figure out how it worked. It was the organic component, of course, that made it so different from any of the technology she’d encountered before. She was hopeful that Janet would be able to help her figure out the biological and technological interface because, if she could do that, then who knew what kind of uses it could be put to? Not only in weapons technology but potentially in medical —