Tossing a shock of dark hair out of her face, Vala skewered her watch with a vexed glare and keyed her com. “I say again, Cameron Mitchell, Daniel Jackson, this is Vala Mal Doran. Do you read me?”

She tipped her ear to her radio, though the distant rumble was not loud enough to mask any response she might receive. Having moved several meters away from the noise and dust produced by SG-8’s attempt to shore up a cracked wall, Vala was glad that the relocation also afforded her a measure of privacy. It would not do for the others to hear the desperation in her voice.

Squeezing the radio with undue force, she ground out, “Damn it, boys, if you know what’s good for you, one of you will answer now!”

“Colonel Mitchell still does not respond?”

In the millisecond Vala thought the voice had come from her radio, her heart quickened with relief. It stumbled a pace before taking up its steady hammer against her breastbone as she turned.

Sending a dark look at Kal’toc, who had moved up behind her completely undetected, she released the death grip on her radio, and shoved back the loose hair that had once again fluttered across her cheek. “No.” The word gushed out with her exasperated exhalation. “I’ve been trying for,” she glanced at her watch again, “eight minutes.

“That is too long for Colonel Mitchell to be merely indisposed,” the Jaffa remarked. “Perhaps it is time you share this information with Captain Grogan. He may wish to send word back to the SGC.”

Vala cursed herself for a coward. Kal’toc was right, of course; she should already have let Grogan know what was going on. But, reporting her inability to reach Cameron and Daniel made it an official problem. Much more concrete than her nebulous fears, her friends’ MIA status would become fact.

Sighing, she reached again for her com. “I was just about to –”

“O’Neill!”

Vala started, her hand leaping from the radio.

“O’Neill, I know you’re listening,” the unknown voice spat. “This is Rigar.”

“Oh!” Vala exclaimed spontaneously. “I’ve heard that name before. Should we tell him General O’Neill isn’t here?”

Kal’toc pinched his forehead in thought, but before he could respond, Rigar’s growl again burst over Vala’s radio, “O’Neill! It would be unwise to ignore me!”

Finding no help in Kal’toc’s pensive frown, Vala shooed her teammate in the direction of their remaining personnel. “Go get Grogan and Major Holden,” she whispered harshly.

Watching his strong back as it receded, Vala fingered the button of her com, still uncertain whether to respond to the call.

“Have you lost Daniel Jackson, O’Neill?”

The inquiry had a sinister lilt which sent a creeping prickle up her spine. “Daniel?” she asked of the air around her. She slid her hand away from the radio, thankful that she hadn’t inadvertently transmitted her query.    

“You should take better care with your operatives, O’Neill. My people found him wandering and brought him to me. Daniel and this other are now my… guests.”

Vala frowned at the implication of his deliberate pause. Knowing she should wait for Grogan, still Vala could not let the unspoken threat to her friends go unanswered. Squeezing the com, she blurted, “Don’t hurt them. Please.”

The radio crackled for a second before Rigar sputtered, “Who is this? I demand to speak to O’Neill!”

“Uh…” Shifting from foot to foot, Vala flapped her unoccupied hand in frustration, afraid suddenly that the only information she could offer would anger Rigar. “General O’Neill is not available at the moment.” She released the button as though it had burned her, anxious for his reply.

“Told you.”

“Daniel?” Certain that the distant jibe had come from the archaeologist – she’d recognize that snarky tone anywhere – Vala clutched her radio in desperation. “Daniel, can you hear me? Are you alright?”

For too many seconds all she heard was the beat of her own heart. Finally, her com clicked.

“Tell O’Neill I will wait one hour. If I have not heard from him –”

Vala gasped, the sudden death of the transmission too ominous to ignore. Her world narrowed to the radio-sized space just above her heart. “What?” she yelled in vain. “If you’ve not heard from him, what?”  

“Vala?”

Her focus expanding to take in the concerned looks of her teammates and SG-8’s team leader, Vala stared dumbly for a second. Pulling a quick breath, she shook herself and shouldered her way between them. “We’ve got to get back to the Stargate,” she snapped over her shoulder. “Daniel and Mitchell are in trouble.”

*****

“She’s sure Rigar has them?” Jack glanced at his right hand, balled in a fist since his radio fizzled to life during Lorimer’s presentation on the energy output of Solarjaia’s ultrasonic radar. He shook the hand, kneading his sore knuckles. Fortunately, the Solarjai were understanding about emergency phone calls.

“Dr. Jackson spoke out during the transmission,” Hank Landry reported. “Magistrate Parey has made contact with two of the men she sent with them. Apparently Colonel Mitchell split them up; two stayed with Nyan at his sister’s while the other two accompanied Dr. Jackson and Colonel Mitchell to a nearby park.  Nyan is fine. His guards were escorting both he and his sister back to the capital. No one’s heard from the others. Parey’s assuming they’ve been taken captive as well.”

“Yeah, or they were in on it,” Jack suggested. “Hell, for all we know, she’s in on it.”

“In on what? Do you suspect a conspiracy of some kind?”

“I’ve dealt with these people before. I told Daniel I don’t trust any one of them to be straight with us.” Seemingly on its own, Jack’s hand again jerked into a fist. “Hank, I’m going to leave Carter here to continue negotiations. Teal’c and I will gate directly to Optrica.”

“I’ll have an S and R team meet you on the other side.”

“Negative,” Jack said. “Rigar’s sure to have people watching his back. I don’t want him getting word that we’ve sent a bunch of commandos in to take him on. In fact, contact Grogan and tell him to have Parey hold back any rescue mission until I can get there and do a little recon. I’ll contact you as soon as I find out what’s going on.”

“Be careful, Jack,” Landry advised after a brief pause. “And good luck”

“Yeah,” Jack acknowledged. “O’Neill out.”

Squeezing his eyes closed against the tension headache building behind his forehead, Jack massaged his temples while he waited for the Stargate to shut down. He dropped the hand away from his head, eyelids rising slowly, as the peculiar receding whine of deactivation sounded. He waved to the woman manning the DHD before making his solitary way back to the conference room, thankful that the Solarjaia were trusting as well as understanding. He needed time to think.

“Damn it, Daniel,” he muttered, anxiety more than anger triggering the oath. “You had to go and get yourself caught by Rigar.”

The events of their first encounter with that maniac tumbled swiftly through his mind. He hadn’t witnessed Daniel’s interrogation – Rigar had had each of them moved to a separate tent for questioning – but the archaeologist’s whipped dog delivery at the debrief had told him what Daniel’s verbal report had not. Rigar’s violent responses to his calm logic and candid replies had shaken his confidence.

They’d all been accused, interrogated in turn, and confined to those damn small electrified cages, but Rigar had gravitated towards Daniel. The civilian’s refusal to back down from his assertions had drawn that maniac like metal shavings to a magnet.

And Daniel. So sure of his facts but still more naïve at that point than Jack had wanted to admit. After the mission, he’d surprised Jack, expressing bewilderment at the fact Rigar had punished him for telling him the truth. Daniel still hadn’t learned that not everyone wanted to be enlightened; some people actually preferred living in denial.

Jack frowned. Rigar was neither the first nor the last bad guy to challenge Daniel’s belief that more information was good. But, for a while after that mission, Daniel was a little less sure of himself and a lot less inclined to express himself so freely. Which only went to show how much Rigar’s extreme reactions had rocked his world.

“I should have fired that zat a second time when I had him in my sights,” he growled. “Hell of a time to get a conscience.”

Finding himself rounding the corner to the conference room, Jack paused outside the door to compose himself. He pulled a deep breath and eased the door open.

“… more interested in the device’s potential for energy production than as a weapon,” Carter was saying. Her eyes swung in his direction, tracking him as he crossed the open space until he halted next to the seat of Solarjaia’s chief consul. Waiting until Angius focused his eerie yellow gaze on him, Jack bowed deeply as Solarjaian protocol dictated.

“Forgive me, chief consul.”

Angius settled a hand on his head. “Yes?”

Given the sign to proceed, Jack straightened stiffly. Masking his impatience at the necessity of tailoring his speech to the occasion, Jack couched his request in terms as formal as his need for brevity allowed. “I’m afraid an urgent matter has come up. Something that requires my personal attention. I must ask that Teal’c and I be excused from these proceedings.”

“Sir?” Carter came to attention in her seat, her finely sculpted eyebrows meeting in a concerned frown at the bridge of her nose. Teal’c likewise gazed at him, his usual stoic expression giving away nothing of what he might be feeling. 

“Colonel Carter and Dr. Tomasi can remain to continue negotiations,” Jack continued, gesturing to Daniel’s stand in. “There’s no need to postpone these talks.”

Angius rolled his gaze across the members of SG-1 in turn. Pushing his chair away from the table, the alien waved a dismissive hand at the scientists with whom Carter had been communing.

Jack watched them slide from their seats and file out. No sooner had the door closed behind them than Angius smoothly stood and tipped his head back, angling his disconcertingly colorless gaze on Jack.

“Spill,” he barked.

Surprised at first that the head of an alien civilization had just employed a common English idiom in his request for information, Jack twisted his mouth in a lopsided grin. “Nice,” he praised earnestly, giving the guy a thumbs up. “Daniel teach you that?”

Angius acknowledged the approval with a smile and a slight tilt of his head. “It was our wish to learn the every day vernacular of your speech as well as that necessary for formal occasions. Daniel was very accommodating to this desire.”

“Yeah, he’s helpful that way.”

“This urgent matter which calls you away, does it concern Daniel?”

Jack’s immediate thought was ‘so much for trust.’ Then, wrestling his cynical self aside, he recognized the inquiry for what it was: interest in Daniel’s welfare. “Yeah. He’s in a bit of trouble, and I have to go and see if I can help him out of it.”

Seemingly unbothered that Jack had slipped into his everyday speech pattern, Angius nodded. “Then you must take both Teal’c and Colonel Carter with you.”

“That’s not necessary,” Jack protested. “Daniel wouldn’t want us to interrupt –”

“I will insist, if that will ease your guilt in Daniel’s eyes,” Angius pressed. “We have all become quite fond of him during his time with us. Desirata was beside herself with worry when he was forced to cancel his scheduled visits a few months ago.”

Mentally flipping through their recent missions, Jack paused at their encounter with a trio of Goa’uld escaped from an insane asylum. Daniel had been shot in the battle to free two members of SG-13 from captivity, but Jack knew it was Daniel’s sorrow over the forced killing of one of the hosts – done only to save Jack’s life – that had kept Daniel from his appointments.

A harshly cleared throat brought him back to the present. “In fact,” Angius concluded, his pale face taking on a hard edge, “I could not face my daughter knowing I have kept you here when Daniel needs your assistance. Yes, I believe I must insist on a postponement of these negotiations until such time as Daniel is safely among you again.” His arm shot out, finger aimed at the exit. “Please, leave now and do not return without him.”

Carter’s eyes widened in alarm, but Jack merely nodded. “We’ll do our best,” he promised.

“Carter, Teal’c, let’s go.” As they got to their feet, Jack turned to Maria Tomasi. “Doctor, go back to Earth and let General Landry know SG-1 is going after its fourth.”

Bobbing a curt goodbye to their host, Jack spun on the ball of his foot, sending Carter scrambling backward to get out of his way. He headed to the exit, not bothering to check whether his team was with him. He paused just long enough to snatch his P-90 from its resting place near the conference room door and quickly retraced his path to the gate room.

“Sir,” Carter called, just a pace behind him, “what’s happened?”

With a flick of his hand, Jack herded his people into a half circle around the Solarjaian equivalent of their gate technician. “It looks like Daniel’s run afoul of Rigar again, and decided to take Mitchell along for the ride.” He gestured towards the technician. “Give her the coordinates to Optrica.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jack shared a grave expression with Teal’c then, stepping aside, turned to face the giant ring as the first chevron lit.

“Didn’t Daniel’s report say Rigar was sent into exile?” Carter asked as she rejoined them.

Jack shrugged. “Apparently the rat found a way out of the trap. I don’t have any details on that. All I know is, Vala intercepted a transmission from Rigar that was meant for me.”

The familiar wave of energy burst forth from the Solarjaian gate, and, without a backward glance, Jack marched determinedly up the stone steps and through the event horizon.

The members of SGs 8 and13 came forward to meet them on the other side.

 “Major Holden,” Jack immediately addressed the leader of SG-8, “take your team back to base. Until this matter is settled, we don’t want to leave any more of our people out there as targets for this maniac.”

Glancing to his men, Holden stepped forward. “Sir, we’d like to stay and help with S and R.”

“I appreciate that, Major,” Jack returned, fully sympathetic with the sentiment, “but yours is an engineering unit. I’ve got a combat team waiting to go in.”

To his credit, Holden kept the disappointment from his face. “Yes, sir,” was all he said. Gesturing to his team to follow, he moved across the room to retrieve their equipment.

As she walked away, Holden’s 2IC, Lieutenant Hurst, tossed a sad glance over her shoulder.

Jack’s small smile of appreciation quickly slid into a smirk of disgruntlement on their behalf.

Snapping back into command mode, he turned to the members of SG-13. “Where the hell is this Triumvi-rat.”

Grogan swept out his arm, ushering him towards the exit. “This way, sir. Down the hallway to the right. Marshal Parey is waiting for you.”

With a nod, Jack rushed out in front of the pack, trusting the junior officer to shout out directions as necessary.

Following close behind, Kal’toc inquired, “You have met this enemy previously, Master Teal’c. What can you tell us of his tactics?”

Hanging a quick left at Grogan’s instruction, Jack jumped in: “He’s crazy. How’s that for tactics? He’s unpredictable and dangerous. He believes the Stargate is a myth and we’re all Optrican spies. The government thought him enough of a threat that they Gilligan’s Islanded him and his followers.”

“Gilligan?” Soft as it was, Kal’toc’s whispered query held a large measure of puzzlement.

Without missing a beat, Teal’c explained, “It is a Tau’ri cultural reference. Gilligan and six others were stranded on an island, without benefit of transportation, electricity or modern conveniences. General O’Neill is saying Rigar and these others were banished, left with only their experience and intelligence to survive as best they could.”

“Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy,” Jack remarked. “He took a special dislike to Daniel when we were here last and I don’t imagine he’d be any more favorably disposed to him given the events that followed our return to Earth.”

“But, that was what, eight, nine years ago?” Grogan inquired. “That’s a hell of a long time to hold a grudge, sir. I mean, the guy was essentially sent into the wilderness, having to eke out an existence, and still he can’t let it go?”

Carter shrugged. “We are talking about a religious zealot. They tend to be single-minded.”

Snorting ill-humoredly at Carter’s neat assessment, Jack glanced over his shoulder at the young captain. “Daniel reported that Rigar was outside when General Hammond called in to check on us. The guy stood there and watched a twelve foot wave of energy plume out of the center of a rock face and still he refused to believe the Stargate existed. This is denial in the extreme.”

Grogan nodded understanding. “Take the next right, sir. The council chambers are at the end of that hallway.”

Jack pulled to a halt outside the circular double doors.

One of the guards inclined his head towards the P-90 cradled in Jack’s arms. “You cannot pass with that weapon.”

“We had to leave our automatic rifles here last time,” Vala informed him, moving to the rack to deposit her P-90. “They let us keep our side arms, though.”

Narrowing his eyes, Jack shifted his grip on his weapon and took a more offensive stance. “That was before two of my people went missing.”

“Sir.” Carter unclipped her P-90, extending it to Vala. “Diplomacy dictates –”

“I’m not playing diplomat right now, Carter,” Jack said over his shoulder. “My role at this moment is as Daniel and Mitchell’s CO and head of the search and rescue mission to locate them. I’m not about to let down my guard. Daniel trusted his safety to these people and look where it got him.”  

“General O’Neill has every reason to be cautious.”

Jack snapped his head around and eyed the woman who now stood between the guards, masking his disconcertment that he hadn’t noticed the doors open.

“I regret that we were unable to prevent the kidnapping of your men.” Parey said. “You may keep your weapons if they make you feel more secure.” Spinning away, she headed for the large table in the center of the room.

Jack turned to Teal’c, a flick of his eyes directing the Jaffa to cover their six, and led the way into the council room.

Nyan shot out of one of the chairs. “General O’Neill! Teal’c! Colonel Carter! This is my fault. If I hadn’t insisted Daniel come with me to see my sister –”

“He would have insisted himself,” Jack concluded, “or Rigar would have found some other way to get to them.” He gestured for Vala and Grogan to take charge of Nyan and his sister then stalked towards Parey. Carter and Teal’c followed close on his heels.

“Do you know yet where Rigar is holding my people?”

“No,” Parey said, bristling at his tone. “The recovery team I sent out found the two guards who accompanied them to the park where they were waiting for Nyan. They were unconscious, but otherwise unharmed. They located Dr. Jackson’s glasses near a Gateway monument, but saw no sign of your men. Witnesses say they were taken away in a shuttlecraft.”

“Do we know anything at all about the rebels’ numbers? Any hope you’ve got somebody in custody?”

“We’ve always suspected there were only a few directly involved in the rebellion. They go into hiding during the day, coming out only after dark, like the vermin they are.”

“So, again, the answer is no,” Jack interpreted.

Her teeth pressed so tightly together Jack expected to hear them crackling like popcorn at any moment, Parey’s eyes sharpened as she huffed out an irritated, “No.”

Jack met her glare unflinchingly. “You know, we had your assurance that our people would be safe.”

“I’ve spoken with the men who were guarding your people. They were surprised and shot with a weapon that rendered them unconscious.”

“Surprised, huh?” Jack disputed. “Convenient that they were left virtually unharmed while my men were dragged off to god knows what fate.”

“What are you insinuating? That my guards had some hand in the kidnapping?”

Carter stepped hastily forward, blocking any response he might have made. “Sir, its likely Daniel and Colonel Mitchell were the intended targets. Obviously, Rigar wanted your attention.”

“That still doesn’t explain how Rigar found them. I’m not a big proponent of coincidence. Someone had to have tipped him off.”

“If that is so,” Parey allowed, “it was none of these four men. They were not aware of Dr. Jackson’s visit until they were summoned as an escort and none of them has had an opportunity alone to contact Rigar.”

“You said your men were shot and left unconscious,” Carter reviewed.

“Yes.”

“What kind of firepower are we facing? Anything like the weapons the Bedrosian soldiers carried?”

Parey’s head bobbed faintly. “They have stolen Bedrosian hunta rifles, yes.”

“Hunta?” Jack interjected. “That’s what those things were called? No wonder they treated us like animals. Probably saw themselves as big game ‘hunters’ or something.”

Her mouth puckering objectionably at the comment, Parey declined rebuttal, purposefully sliding her gaze to Carter. “The men claim the weapon that incapacitated them emitted blue lightning. I suspect it is one of the weapons we confiscated from your people on your first visit here. Rigar was ordered to turn all of your belongings over, but I do remember he found that particular piece intriguing. I would not be surprised to learn he had retained it.”

“He kept a zat?” Jack deduced. “You didn’t think this was information you should have shared before you let my men go out into the city?”

“At the time, we had no way of knowing Rigar had escaped exile.”

“Yeah, any idea yet how that happened?”

Visibly battling to maintain her composure Parey said simply. “His son.”

Before Jack had fully processed the implications of her statement, Carter blurted, “He has a son?”

Parey nodded. “His name is Rigel. He is a member of the Optrican security force. He has proven himself a dedicated soldier. I fully expected he would become a great military leader.”

“What has transpired that would cause you to re-evaluate your assessment of his future potential?”

Content to let Teal’c ask the question, Jack conveyed his support of the query by shooting a finger at the big guy in a ‘what he said’ gesture.

The corners of Parey’s mouth turned downward, her expression more disappointed than sad. “Rigel did not report to his duty station this morning and the shuttlecraft he took out on patrol yesterday has not been returned to base.”

Jack growled. “Rigar’s son is AWOL? Did you at least share that bit of news with Colonel Mitchell before he made the decision to go?”

“There was no reason to believe anything was amiss,” Parey rejoined with a glower. “Since the riots, we began allowing patrolmen to keep their vehicles at their residences as a show of our presence within the city. Rigel had kept his shuttle overnight on previous occasions.”

“You must have some means to track it,” Carter suggested hopefully.

“Not at the moment,” Parey grudgingly replied. “The tracking device on that vehicle has been disabled. It is now apparent that Rigel took the shuttle to that island to retrieve Rigar and others in exile.”

“Gee, ya think?” Jack sniped.

“We did not know that Rigel was of his father’s persuasion,” Parey argued. “All indications were he was faithful to the Optrican government.”

“I know he’s been away for a while, but Rigar must have had some hand in raising the boy. It never once occurred to you that he might have exerted some negative influence over his kid?”

“We were concerned at first that he might have passed his uncompromising beliefs to Rigel,” Parey confirmed. “Rigar was well known for his fanaticism. That is why he was assigned to such a remote location.”

“Why would your military allow such a loose cannon to continue to serve? Even out in the boonies he managed to cause some pretty serious damage.”

“Rigar was a war hero,” Parey disclosed somberly. “He was the only one of his siblings to survive the war; his two brothers were killed in the first years of the conflict with Optrica.”

“The injury to his leg,” Carter ventured, and Jack recalled suddenly that Rigar walked with a pronounced limp. “He was wounded in the war?”

“Yes,” Parey confirmed. “The Optricans were threatening one of our primary defense fortifications. Rigar flew a shuttle across enemy lines, laying down fire that stopped the advance long enough for our troops to regroup. His craft was shot down as he retreated. Rigar sustained egregious injury; he very nearly died.”

“Fanaticism and reckless behavior tend to go hand in hand.”

“His fanaticism did not manifest until after his injury, General O’Neill. Rigar had always been devout, but it was during his recovery, while he could do little else, that he studied the Book of Nefertum so intently, reading it over and over.”  Parey frowned. “His wife once confided to me that Rigar began to dwell on the fact that he had survived what he had believed would be a suicide mission. Thinking that Nefertum must have had a hand in sparing him, Rigar enthusiastically rededicated his life to his god. Once he recovered, he was reassigned to recruitment and training of troops, but his extreme religious views proved distracting. Our leaders could not just discard him, not after everything he’d done to protect Bedrosia from enemy incursion…”

“So they dumped him in the middle of nowhere, guarding an archeological expedition,” Jack concluded.

“Not right away,” Parey amended. “He was moved to several different posts before receiving that assignment.”

Jack grunted acknowledgment. “How long were you under his command?” It seemed a pertinent question. Parey had stood by silently nine years ago, seemingly unperturbed by the harsh treatment his team had received at the hands of her superior. He had to wonder how much affinity she had for the guy.

“If you are concerned that I was influenced by my time under Rigar’s command, General, I assure you my loyalty is to the Optrican government. It is in her best interest that Rigar be stopped and I intend to do all in my power to end this attack on her citizens. My lieutenants are assembling scout teams as we speak and once we have found Rigar and his followers –”

Jack waved his hands, derailing that train of thought. “Hold on. You can’t just send men out half-cocked and thirsting for blood.”

“I am responsible for law enforcement, O’Neill. This is my city.”

“I don’t give a damn if that maniac is camped out in the middle of your living room, it’s my people on the line if your guys screw it up and you’ve already blown any chance you might have had to prove to me that you can keep my team safe. We’ve got troops waiting on the other side of the gate. I have no objection to you sending your people as backup, but they will take direction from mine.”

Parey’s face pinched tight, coloring slightly with indignation, and Jack stiffened, prepared for an argument. “How do you propose to locate Rigar?” she finally inquired.

Taking her lack of protest as a sign that she’d given in to his demand, Jack turned to his team.

“Carter, tell me you have some way of locating Daniel and Mitchell.”

“Yes, sir,” she assured him. “We’ve outfitted several UAVs with subspace transceivers that will pick up the signal from their locator chips.”

“Okay, go back to the SGC and get it ready. Tell Landry I’ll take that back-up he offered earlier. And bring a few extra radios so we can stay in contact with Parey’s troops.”

“Yes, sir.” Turning to Parey, whose expression had transitioned from peevish to intrigued the longer they spoke, Carter explained, “The UAV is an unmanned aircraft, equipped with a device capable of pinpointing the location of our people.”

Parey nodded her understanding. “We have utilized drones in the past, so hopefully yours will not raise alarm.”

“Good. We’ll fly it through the Stargate and over your city remotely, so I’m going to need the most direct route out of this building.”

“The roof above the Gateway is retractable,” the marshal disclosed. “I will order it opened fully.”

“Perfect. Sir, I’ll calculate the trajectory on my way out.”

Flashing a ‘you do that’ nod, Jack shot a glance at the members of SG-13 and their charges. “Take SG-13 with you to the gate. Give them a quick rundown and have them brief the other team on their arrival. I’ll do what I can to stall Rigar until you get back.”

“What about Nyan?”

Jack shrugged. “If he and his sister want to go back to Earth, I have no objection.” Turning to Parey, he challenged, “Is the Optrican government going to have a problem with this?”

“I see no reason to keep Nala here if she wishes to go with her brother,” Parey agreed.

Bobbing her head in thanks on the siblings’ behalf, Carter made her way quickly across the room.

Jack watched as she spoke to the small assembly. Nyan’s sleepy-eyed countenance enlivened with a grateful smile, and Jack answered the gesture with a small nod.

As Carter moved towards the exit, the civilians behind her, Jack turned his back on the procession. Coming face to face again with Parey’s sour expression, he raised his arm with deliberation, ripped back the Velcro anchoring the protective cover on his watch, and scowled at the timepiece.

“Less than three minutes by my reckoning,” a too-sultry voice breathed in his ear.

Turning the glower on Vala, Jack growled, “You were supposed to go to the gate and wait for backup.”

“I need to be here when you contact Rigar.” Her eyes gentled in entreaty, Vala held his gaze. “I need to hear first hand that they’re still alive.”

Jack pursed his mouth thoughtfully, eyes narrowing. He tilted his head back, assessing her as he would one of his recruits.

Vala’s features hardened instantly. “Oh, come on! What is there to consider? You tore my team apart; the least you can do is let me find out if I’ve still got my friends.”

Darting his gaze to Parey, who showed only mild interest in the outcome of their dispute, Jack glared again at his watch, snapped a curt, “Stay over there and don’t say a word,” to Vala, and roughly squeezed his com. “Hey, Rigar!”

Part 3

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