Outside in the hanger Alek and Abi worked away on their shared laptop, feeding commands into the Nidhogg computer system. The very basic interface program the Russian had written when they'd first made contact with the bugs was still in it's infancy, and he required the assistant of Abi and her linguist skills to fully exploit the alien mainframe. Despite having been a captive of the enemy for five months who'd been tortured daily, Miss Ely still did have a radiant glow about her, the one Alek had found himself noticing during their time together on the prison ship. Once they got back to safety there would no doubt be an interesting conversation over a cup of coffee.

"<I...believe...that is correct,>" she replied, her lines of coding complete. Without time to check them Alek uploaded them straight into the Nidhogg network, and grabbing Abi's hand the two raced back to the awaiting Puddle Jumper. "Close the hatch!" he cried as he charged into the shuttle, strapping himself in. He had been maintaining a mental count down in his head until the line of coding kicked in and knew things would be close.

The otherwise quiet hanger exploded with noise as battling Nidhogg and Ori soldiers poured in, exchanging fire. Right on queue Abi's line of code activated, and the organic mouth-like opening to the hanger opened up, exposing the hanger to hard vacuum. Air and loose rubbish rushed out the maw into space, along with Ori soldiers. Being a silicon-based life form the Nidhogg could survive space exposure, and they dug their claws into the organic floor to stop themselves being sucked out into space. Turning the bugs started the slowly move toward the vessel, their intentions anything but pleasant.

"I suggest we make departure," Alek stammered as he watched the alien draw closer.

1111 - 1114
Nidhogg Prison Vessel
Puddle Jumper

The queen sat in the throne room, watching the display of the Task Force with what would be an amused expression. Their time was ticking down til this place went up in smoke. A part of her secretly hoped that they wouldn't escape, but even if they all did, there was still one that wouldn't. There was still going to be one who's soul would remain trapped here forever. The face turned to the still fallen Destiny Andre; out cold due to one zat. "Any moment," the queen seemed to mutter it was now a matter of seconds before the timers stopped.

Destiny's body lay on the bench of the puddle jumper lifeless. The first time it had been since they all had been captured. Right now, she looked like the pilot they all once knew. Not the brainless zombie that was trying to destroy them all. Chaos continued on around the captain as unknown to everyone, not only their life, but her life was ticking down as well. The machine connect to the captain beeped, showing the heart was still pumping precious blood through the body. It was showing that she was alive; for now. Just as the last few people came aboard, the hazel eyes of the woman blinked to life. It as almost as if it was on a time clock.

A groan of pain rushed through the female while trying to sit up. Her head felt like it had been spun around many times, only to be shoved back; jumbling everything inside. Burying the head into her hands, the young woman moaned, trying to clear up the thoughts racing; the thoughts of both Destiny Andre and Renita, the servant of the queen. It was as if two people were fighting for control of this body, but there could only be one victor. Raising the confused head, the brunette glanced around to the others on the jumper, both remembering them as friends and enemies. Though when the eyes rested on the door closing, feeling the jumper move, only one thought came; the queen!

The captain quickly unhooked herself from the machine, raced to the door, but then stopped as memories of Destiny came flooding back. Why was she trying to leave, if her friends were right here? They were all safe, but from what? It was like someone had just had just awaken Des without filling her in on anything. Shaking the head clear, or at least trying to, the auburn pilot turned to face the others, with a look of confusion.

The queen watched as slowly the explosives were being set off. "Time for the curtain call Captain Andre. Let's take our final bow together," the queen said settling back in the chair as the rest of the ship set off.

The eyes scanned the others, going from friends to enemies then back to friends again. She searched their faces for answers, but none came. Just as the pilot started taking a step towards Samarra, remembering her friendship more than the others, Des stopped; like as it something was slowly her down. As though the wind on her back was coming to a halt. She started to open the mouth to speak, but felt like someone was choking the life out of her, slowly. No words came, no noises. It was like someone was just putting a cork in her, or slowly squeezing the life from her. The captain tried to take steps towards the old friend, but couldn't. The energy was being zapped from her body. The eyes rolled back into the head as Destiny Andre collapsed to the floor; not moving, not breathing, and not seeming to be alive. The one friend of the Task Force, becoming an enemy, now friend again, was down and out for the count.

< tag all >

This entire experience reminded her of having a fever when she was a child. Like there was a slight blocker between her and reality. It was a strange sensation. Blinking her way through the mental haze, Abi looked over at Alek – knowing that him being beside her helped the whole ‘focus’ thing. With a deep breath, she announced that she thought she had it. Alek apparently trusted her more then she trusted herself, as he tugged her away from the station, with the pull of her hand. She allowed him to pull her away, some part of her smiling at what reality was now shaping into. They were going to make it home. YES! AND – her favorite people were all alive – including the Russian Ninja who was currently interlocked between her fingers. They ended up back in the escape-thing, causing Alek to call, "Close the hatch!”

Abi’s heart beat out of her chest, worried that her code wouldn’t work. Then they would be dead. Hahahaha…yay nervous laughter.

The code activated – apparently working – causing the aliens and stuff go to whoop and fly into space. Hahaha – eat that mother frakkers.

Chaos ensued within the jumper – which Abi’s already fragile mind really didn’t need. The girl buried her head in her arms as she sat, highly aware that people were screaming and dying and whatnot. To be honest, she wasn’t a medical person, so she didn’t want to see it.

"I suggest we make departure," Alek stammered, causing Abi to uncover her face and look up at him. She frowned slightly, petting him gently on the shoulder to calm down his obviously on edge nerves.

Her dark blue eyes wandered around the cabin, noticing that Des had caused a reaction from Marra – who appeared very awake now. Pushing herself to her feet, Abi whispered to Alek, “<Be right back,>” in Russian, before drifting over to Marra.

“They’ve got it,” she promised, referring to Des with a slight flick of her finger, before not being able to contain a slight burst of nervous laughter.
“Marra…I think we’ve done it. I think we’re on our way home,” she smiled, still in awe of it all, “And for the most part, neither of us our dead – so that’s a good thing,” she sighed, her eyes half ignoring the chaos in the cabin. Her mind couldn’t take it.

Abi was mildly caught off-guard by Marra’s sudden pounce-to-cling, but also welcomed it at the same time. Human contact had changed from something that made her happy…to something she craved. The hysterical fit caused Abi’s mind to jump to the intense feelings she had been burrowing over the past few months. She had stopped freaking out when it seemed like that there was no hope. Now that they were on their way out, she couldn’t help but feel the dry-face she had been holding onto shatter, as her eyes grew blurry. Tears that felt too hot, rolled down her cheeks as she held Marra within her arms – Abi’s eyes falling closed after a moment.

They were going to make it.

Not too long ago, it was Marra that was defending Abi from people that looked down upon her for not being of the military grade. She was practically the only civilian – though she was sure that the other blond woman was of a similar nature. Now that Abi held Marra in her arms, a faint sense of ‘you scratch my back I scratch yours’ washed over her, causing a smile to slightly break across her now shimmering face.

She opened her eyes once more, looking around the cabin of the jumper-shuttle-thing, watching the people who had saved them, as well as the people who she had been held captive with. All appeared tired. Cromin appeared to be having an episode. Des…was awake. Oh. Hi.

Their saviors almost seemed to be as worn as the captives – simply after the period in which the rescue mission had taken place.

Alek appeared as tired and as worn as her.

Her eyes remained upon him for a moment, before glancing back down at Marra, with a smile.

“You know what I want more then anything? A bacon cheese burger with extra cheddar cheese, greasy fries, and a chocolate milk shake. Or…just solid food. Whatever comes closest to my mouth next,” she laughed, sliding out of the embrace slightly, forcing her messy hair behind her ears.

“And a bed,” she continued, pulling her legs into the ‘pretzel’ position upon the bench, “Oh – and I want my warm pajamas that I have from home. Ahhh…and read an email from home,” a warm smile filled her features as she thought of her parents, siblings, and her best friend Cameron.

He was the only one that seemed okay with the fact that she told him nothing yet everything. The stuff that would get him shot in the head, and Abi kicked out – was of course locked away in her mind…but yet he seemed to know. It was odd…yet very him. He was her favorite-not-sibling. And honestly…if it wasn’t for him and his brilliant idea to become DJs, she wouldn’t be in a different galaxy at the moment. She could twist it to blame him for her months of captivity – but that was silly.

“But…I’m probably going to go crazy as frak whenever I see a bug from now on,” she admitted, laughing slightly.

Home never felt so close…

With the majority of the crew crowded into the rear of the Puddle Jumper, Aleksandr moved to the front of the ship. It was after all only a small craft. The cloaking shield on the shuttle had been activated to hide it from enemy eyes, and once it was far enough away the ship did a 180 degree turn to look back at the carnage. A pair of Ori mother ships were pounding the organic Nidhogg cruiser with the energy weapons, though the bugs weren't going down without a fight, their launchers firing superheated chunks of plasma onto the slowly weakening Ori shields.

As he watched the two alien superpowers slug it out, Kamarov couldn't help but imagine what the odds were that the Ori had shown up just as they were escaping. It could have been that the SGC lured the Ori into the attack knowing it would allow them a way off the ship. Maybe it had just been pure chance or luck. Or maybe it was a higher power at work... Regardless of the explanation, Alek was glad to those forces had found each other, a civil war between the two that weakened them both could only be a good thing of the natives of the Ida Galaxy.

The Ancient shuttle turned back around and resumed it's original course. With the battle still raging behind they wouldn't be able to call for a cruiser to pick them up just yet, but they were safe and hidden from the enemy for the time being. Relaxing back into the chair, Alek closed his eyes, and began the first proper sleep he'd had in months.