You Can’t Keep An Old Dog Down

You Can’t Keep An Old Dog Down

Author Notes: The writing styles of Corwalch and Lady FoxFire don't mesh very well therefore we decided that one of us would write one chapter and the other would write the next chapter. So here's Corwalch's chapter…

Jack O’Neill had been gone for almost twenty hours and the remaining members of his team were beginning to get worried. They had been so hopeful that Jack had been putting together a device that would help him and from what little Daniel had understood of the Ancient language that was Jack had told him it would do, but so far he hadn’t returned.

As Teal’c meditated in the corner of the General’s briefing room, to try and alleviate his worries, Sam and Daniel were taking turns pacing. Every now and then they would stop and go over the plans Jack had drawn or the conversations they had had, trying to see if they had missed something or if they could figure out what exactly Jack had done.

Suddenly an alarm began blaring "Unauthorized Stargate Activation" and then they heard Harriman’s voice call out over the intercom, "Incoming Wormhole! All Security teams to the Gateroom!"

Daniel and Sam dropped their papers onto the table and raced for the control room with Teal’c only a few steps behind them.

They got there in time to hear General Hammond ask. "Is there an IDC?"

"No sir." Harriman told him, his hand over the button that would seal the iris.

"Close the Iris" Hammond’s eyes never strayed from the gate or the men waiting below weapons ready.

Daniel spoke up, "but sir, it could be Jack. He didn’t have a GDO."

"I know that son," Hammond looked briefly at the younger man, before turning his attention back to the scene below, "But it’s not a risk I’m prepared to take. Nor would Colonel O’Neill expect me to." Hammond didn’t look that pleased with his decision. "We don’t need a horde of Jaffa in the gateroom. Colonel O’Neill knew the risks when he left."

"Sir," Harriman’s concerned voice interrupted before Daniel could say anything more. "The Iris won’t close."

Harriman’s fingers were moving rapidly over his keyboard trying to get control of the iris back.

Carter moved quickly to the nearest computer console and started typing in commands to see if she could figure out what had happened.

Hammond waited impatiently to hear what she’d found out.

"We’ve been locked out," she finally announced but that didn’t stop her from continuing to try and get past whatever had taken control of their computers.

"Could it have been something put in by Colonel O’Neill before he left?" Hammond asked. If it had been, he was going to have words with the Colonel when he got back.

"No sir," Carter stated with certainty. "Whatever has us locked out, is originating from outside our system. It is preventing the command from reaching the Iris."

Before Hammond could ask another question, a figure stumbled through the gate and down the ramp a few paces. As soon as the person was clear of the gate it disengaged.

"It is O’Neill!" Teal’c recognized the weary person sinking to his knees on to the gate ramp.

Before anyone could react and stop him, Daniel raced out of the control room and toward the gateroom, quickly followed by Carter and Teal’c.

As Daniel started to push through the cordon of SF troops that filled the entrance to the gateroom, Hammond called through the mike in the control room, "Colonel O’Neill, how did you prevent the iris from closing?"

O’Neill remained on his knees but wearily raised his head to meet his commander’s gaze in the control room. "It wasn’t me, sir." O’Neill stated in a pain-filled voice as he remained where he was. His head still felt someone had been using it for a kettledrum. "It was the Asgard… sir."

Daniel came to a stop at the bottom of the ramp as Jack was talking to the General. He was quick to make the connection with the race that protected Cimmeria. "Thor’s people?"

"Yep and they look like the Roswell greys." Jack added helpfully, then mumbled to himself. "Forgot to ask them why they ended up in Roswell."

The alarm continued to blare until Jack shouted. "Could somebody please shut that damn thing off? My head is killing me." He quickly regretted that shout though as his head found new levels of pain to express its displeasure at the noise. He curled on his side on the ramp, his head held firmly in his hands

Harriman shut off the alarm and without being prompted by the General then called through the intercom system. "Medical team to the gateroom. Medical team to the gateroom."