Diana Dru Botsford - Stargate SG-1: Four Dragons: SG1-16

Authors Note: This story takes place shortly after the events in season sevens Orpheus.

PRELUDE

PLANET DESIGNATION:

LORD YUS HOMEWORLD (P3X-042)

STATUS: ENEMY OCCUPIED TERRITORY

APPROX 2130 HRS LOCAL TIME

3 JUL 03/1050 HRS BASE TIME

Clink. Snap. Clink. Snap.

A Zippo was forever. A modern miracle. An endurable lighter, bar none.

Sure, the thing needed refueling. Sure, the flint wore out, but that was an easy fix. No need to futz. No cajoling, no arguments. Just a flick of the wheel and poof! A steady, reliable flame.

Clink.

Colonel Jack ONeill flipped his lighter open once more. Worn dull from seven years of Abydonian sun, sand and sweat while under Skaaras care, the thing worked just fine, thank you.

Thats what made a Zippo so damn reliable. It never tried to ascend, descend, or worse, let some overdressed, fortune-cookie style snake-in-the-head Goauld snatch it away. At least, not without a fight.

Damn it, Daniel .

Snap.

Jack slapped the old Zippo shut. He was positioned on the hilltop in order to stand first watch, not to feel sorry for himself though it wasnt like he couldnt do both. There pretty much wasnt anything else to do for the moment. The sun had dropped hard and fast, but the moon was still on the rise, casting a bright, grey haze across the landscape. Any sort of covert mission would be impossible until that moon set as well.

He scanned the valley floor with his pocket scope. Ten klicks to the west, the high curved walls and copper-topped turrets of Lord Yus fortress jutted out from a bedrock of limestone. The whole thing was lit up like a nightmare version of that old Chinese theatre in Hollywood. Not as showy as some other snakeheads big, bad domains, but the effect was still the same. A giant thumb to the nose. A reminder of how Jack had most certainly screwed up.

Hell, hed practically delivered Daniel into Yus hands.

Stupid, stupid Jack. What the hell had he been thinking? Daniel had come back, descended, returned from Oma-land less than a month ago, but Jack couldnt let it lie. He had to push. He had to make his point. He had to piss Daniel off enough to make him an easy target for that no good, slimy, bottom-feeder, Lord Yu.

The recognizable thrum of a death glider yanked Jack from his one-man pity-fest. The ship swooped down from a terrace to one side of Yus not so little compound and headed north, flying parallel with a range of mountains at the valleys far end. The glider dipped lower, raking by a pile of crammed together shacks which most likely housed Yus slaves.

A nice little dose of harassment to keep the folks at bay.

The glider changed course on the spin of a dime, moonlight bouncing off its arched wings as its canted bow tilted upwards. The ship climbed into the night sky, tossing gravity aside as it ascended at break-neck speed. The engines accelerated, became a high-pitched whine, and then the telltale cone of clouded air puffed up in its wake. A moment later, a sonic boom echoed off the distant mountains as the glider disappeared beyond the moon.

Carter would have rattled on about how the glider didnt really disappear. How the naked eye cant see objects travelling that fast without a light source. That is, if she was speaking to him. Which she wasnt. Not that Jack blamed her.

He had no one but himself to blame.

Clink.

Still, one less glider was good news. It meant one, maybe two less Jaffa. More luck in their favor when they went in to rescue Daniel.

Who was he kidding? A chimp with boxing gloves would have better luck. Still, for the amount of trouble Yu had gone to, the Goauld had to have a good reason, which meant maybe, just maybe, Daniel could be alive.

Snap.

Ignoring the ache in his knee, Jack crouched down beside a sparse, puny-looking tree. Until that damned moon set, no one was going anywhere. Not unless SG-1 wanted a one-way trip and suicide was pretty much considered pass these days, even by him.

Suicide and Zippos. Jack snorted. Hed become his own personal walking, talking clich. Memories could be such pains in the ass. Distracting, sneaky little bastards.

So why the hell then had he taken back Skaaras lighter when the kid died left for the next level of existence went off to Oma-ville?