Stargate SG1 - Roswell (48 page)

“Here,” Cam's voice came through stronger this time.
I
Presumably he was pointing to a map because he added, “This is Nellis, White Sands, and up here is Wright Field. It's possible that once the Army thought they were under attack from the Asgard, they removed the bombs to alternate facilities. Their aircraft couldn't have gone far because it takes a considerable amount of time to load one of those bombs, the only planes capable of carrying that payload are the B-29 Superfortresses, and there's only a handful of runways that can accommodate a Superfortress with a nuke aboard. Plus the US government wouldn't have wanted to let them out of the country.”

Sam realized that Cam was talking to her as much as Qetesh, because he added, “Thing is, if you go looking for the rest of the bombs, now, Ra's going to get suspicious, but if we can locate that Asgard escape pod they recovered at Roswell, the transport—”

His next words were unclear, but it was so obvious that Sam couldn't understand why she hadn't thought of it sooner. The General must have also understood what Cam was getting at because an insert display appeared on the HUD.

“Scan for uranium-235 and plutonium-239,” she told O'Neill.

“...weak fools were stupid enough to have lost the Asgard and his escape pod.” Qetesh's voice was clearer and louder, presumably she was now standing beside Cam. “You will have the weapon that I acquired prepared by tomorrow morning. Ra has the dialing device and is bringing it to the Chappa'ai as we speak. Once it is installed...”

Sam could barely make out of the next few words, but it sounded like Qetesh was planning on having the nuke ringed to Ra's ship when he was taking a new host.

“Son
of a bitch,” the General said, shaking his head.

“What's wrong now?” Bennett demanded from the back of the jumper, belatedly adding, “Sir.”

Daniel answered. “Qetesh wants Ra nuked when he's taking her son—”

“It's not Qetesh's son,” O'Neill abruptly reminded them. “It's
Vala's.”

Bennett's face screwed up in confusion, but there was no time to explain the bizarre reproductive dichotomies of hosts and
symbiotes
.
“Why wait until then?” Sam wondered.

“She fears Ra.” Teal'c said simply. “And she is a Goa'uld.”

Suddenly, Sam understood. Ra had survived countless attempts
on his life by preemptively moving against treacherous offspring. Fearing Ra would smell a trap even before she'd ringed the nuke aboard, Qetesh was capitalizing on the one
instance when she could be absolutely certain he
was
vulnerable.

And she was deliberately using Vala's son to do it. The stark reality of Cam's reminder, that Qetesh allowed Vala's consciousness
to witness her atrocities, drove home to Sam exactly why he wanted an end to this. It was a living nightmare
that Sam, who'd had the unwelcome
 
experience of some of
Jolinar's
more horrific memories, could barely comprehend. Insanity would have been merciful, but based on what Cam had told them, Vala had tenaciously clung to one hope: that SG-
1
would go back in time and undo this horror.

Bennett looked around at them, as if their facial expressions alone would provide him with an answer. “Taking? What do you
 
mean
taking?”

While they'd briefed Bennett on several points, their explanation of the world of the future hadn't gotten has far as Goa'uld physiology. “As a host,” Sam explained through gritted teeth. “The Goa'uld are a parasitic race that infect human brains and take complete control of their minds and bodies.”

'“But not their souls,” Daniel said quietly. “Never that. We can't let Qetesh take over from Ra, Jack,” His tone became impassioned. “I didn't think it was possible, but she's worse—far worse. If we fail to get back, we can't unleash that...thing on the galaxy.”

Sam glanced at O'Neill, who was staring intently—too intently—at the HUD. He hadn't answered Daniel, but she knew, just by looking at him, that he was in total agreement. “Asgard transport?” he asked.

“Fully operational,” An replied.

“Carter?”

The General was thinking the same thing as Sam, because two signals, quite close together, flickered on the screen. She studied the HUD for a moment before pointing to one and glancing over her shoulder at An. “Can you get a lock on these signals and beam one of them out of there?”

“Yes,” An replied, blinking. “Which one?”

Sam gave him the frequency of Cam's subcutaneous locator implant.

“Sam?” Daniel asked. “You planning on beaming out Cam?”

“And the nukes, in,” O'Neill finished.

“What about the hand DHD?”

“With Ra and Qetesh dead,” Teal'c said, “Colonel Mitchell will readily take control of the Stargate and the Jaffa.”

On the HUD the image had altered and was now displaying several separate sources of uranium-235 and plutonium-239, including Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where the uranium was enriched, Wright, Fort Worth, White Sands and Alaska. “Take your pick, Colonel,” O'Neill said.

Cam's voice, flat and lacking any emotion whatsoever, came through the radio. “If you're getting any of this, General, I'm currently alone inside the transport bay of Qetesh's Ha'tak, and from what I can tell, I'm standing in front of
'Little Boy's' twin brother. Qetesh managed to get only one nuke. I'm kinda hoping you might be able to scrounge up one more.”

The possibilities began running through Sam's mind as she recalled
exactly how the bomb was configured.

“Little Boy' was easy to detonate. In fact, that was the problem.
It was almost
too
easy and it came as a surprise to her that Qetesh had risked transporting it aboard her ship instead of her encampment by the Stargate. Its instability was another detail tat
Cam
had obviously neglected to mention to the Goa'uld, but
one which now worked in their favor.

“We're reading you, Cam,” she replied, “I'm going to have two
of the 'Little Boy' models beamed someplace safe where I
can
arm them, then we'll beam you to safety.” Turning to the General,
she said, “Sir, focus on signals of only uranium-235. The
'
Fat Man' models used plutonium but 'Little Boy' only utilized
U-235.”

“Sam, if I suddenly vanish before the explosion,” Cam replied, “Ra and Qetesh will know the Asgard are involved and
that they're up to something. You're going to have to wait until
the
armed bombs are aboard both ships before you beam me anywhere.”

The General exchanged a look with her. “That's going to make
things kinda tight, Mitchell.”

“No choice, sir,” Cam replied, effectively putting an end to the discussion.

He was right, of course, but given how unstable these nukes were, it was a huge risk, Sam knew, albeit a necessary one. “Sir,
to
distinguish actual bombs from stored uranium, we need individual units that contain masses of fifty-six and one half pounds,
plus eighty-four and one half pounds, separated only be a few feet.”

“Why separated?” Daniel asked.

“Because that's how the bombs function. By bringing two sub-critical masses of U-235 together, you get atomic fission.”

“Got nine,” O'Neill said. “Two at Wright, the four at White Sands
and...crap. Make that three. One's moving at around a hundred and fifty miles an hour, and accelerating. Army must be playing musical chairs with the things. There's another picking up speed from Forth Worth.”

“An, can you beam two of the U-235 units...” Sam thought for a moment. She needed somewhere safe to work, but she also needed to remain in contact with Cam. The Goa'uld generally remained in geosynchronous orbit above the Stargate, which meant that anywhere in the US would do. “I'm not entirely certain that they can be transported without detonating them so don't beam them aboard the jumper. We need someplace well away from civilization.”

An adjusted the settings, and then met her eyes. “Yes.”

She was about to ask whether 'yes' was simply a response to her question, when the General said. “Looks like you've got your nukes, Carter.”

Turning to the HUD, she saw two distinct U-235 signatures not far from the original test sight at Alamogordo.

“These units contain an extremely volatile isotope,” An remarked. “Such weapons would have dire consequences for the environment in which it is used. I believe the half-life for depletion is in the order of seven hundred and fourteen million years. This location is near an already contaminated site.”

“No kidding,” O'Neill muttered, putting the jumper into a descent over New Mexico.

“Sam?” Cam called. “Qetesh will be back here every five goddammed minutes, bugging me to hurry up, and I need to at least look like I know what I'm doing.”

“Start disassembling the tail fin and explain to her that the trigger mechanism is inside. It won't interfere with the bomb itself. Assuming the bombs we've acquired are designed to use cordite triggers, it shouldn't take me more than ten minutes or so to arm each of them.”

“Okay, I'll keep the radio on; just don't call me.”

During the jumper's descent, Bennett, who must have caught on to what was going on, said, “I appreciate all that you folks are doing to help us, but I don't understand why.”

“We're all fighting the same enemy, Commander,” Daniel said, diplomatically ducking the question.

“
We
are not at war with the Goa'uld,” An objected.

“No,” Daniel agreed, “but you needed our help in fighting the Replicators, and—”

“We're the Fifth Race,” Jack interrupted.

Sam glanced at An, who was staring at the General intently. Another green food cube materialized from someplace and An wordlessly place it into his mouth.

Preoccupied
with reviewing the trigger mechanism of the uranium
A-bombs, she barely heard the conversation between Teal'c, Bennett, Daniel and An, until the jumper landed.

“Okay,
Colonel, you're on,” O'Neill said.

Leaving her laptop balanced on the control panel, Sam stood and followed the others outside, stopping on the way to collect a screwdriver, C-4 and some detonators.

The bombs, each painted black, sat side by side in wheeled, reinforced metal cradles.

“They're...bulky,” Daniel said, stepping out beside her.

“Ten feet long.” Sam walked around behind the tailfin of one,
to the access plate on the left side, and immediately began unscrewing.
“And twenty eight inches in diameter. Antiquated, and
not exactly a huge blast at about fifteen kilotons, but enough to blow Ra's ship.”

“Not
huge?
Colonel, I've seen the photos from Hiroshima and Nagasaki....” Bennett paused and stared at her. “Did you really blow up a sun?”