Author's Note:I am SO sorry how long overdue this update is. I apologize to everyone who's been waiting, and I hope to have more updates to follow! (However, I now have a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History, and am working on my Masters!)

Enjoy!

"Hello, Cordelia. It's been awhile. How's things working out with your dad?" Will's voice was calm, but under the circumstances Cordelia reacted as though he had started speaking another language.

Before 'Delia could past her shock, Cassandra interjected herself into the conversation. "I don't know what they've offered you, but please, help us! Will, is it? You have to believe me, the goa'uld will use you and then destroy you without a second thought."

Will turned his gaze to Cassie's bruised face. "Lord Shesmu has spared your life, even though you have no useful information for us." The odd look in his eyes seemed to flicker, momentarily sharpening into focus. "Besides," he added proudly. "I'm the first human being these aliens have made a deal with. It's an historic moment, and I know they'll respect that."

She knew he'd always been a bit out there, but Cordelia had no idea Will was this deluded! "What are you talking about Will? Aliens are little green men with big eyes, these guys are just wack-jobs who need to be arrested! Why are you helping them kidnap us?"

"Actually, they're gray." Cassie corrected quietly. Cordelia turned to look at her, as best she could, sharply. "What?"

Before Cassandra could explain about the Asgard, Lord Shesmu interrupted. "What is it with you taur'i and the incessant need to hear your own voices!" He had prepared a great speech with which to instill fear and respect into Daniel Jackson's offspring, but the girl barely paid attention to him! His eyes flashed in irritation. "Your father destroyed my liege lord Osiris, and now the time for reckoning is upon us. He will experience great pain and know loss to a degree that is fitting for one who dared to raise a hand against a god!"

Cassandra's protective instincts were fully engaged as she did her best to distract the goa'uld from Cordelia. "The Stargate program has made some incredible advances since the last System Lord incursion, Shesmu. They've probably already been alerted of your presence in orbit." Also, when she was concentrating on speaking clearly and persuasively, she could ignore some of the throbbing pain that was coursing through her body. Not that her arguments would do any good. Cassandra didn't remember much from the first time she saw SG-1, after her entire planet had been wiped out by Nirrti's plague. Even when she had lived it, the first few hours felt like a bad dream that she couldn't wake up from. But her first crystal clear memory was of the pain on Sam's face as she left Cassandra alone in a room so that when the naquida bomb inside of her blew, the girl would be the only casualty. The alien who responsible for the bomb, who was willing to use an innocent child as a weapon of mass destruction, was of the same species as the monster who know threatened to hurt Daniel's family. Reasoning with him was about as useful as trying to convince a snowstorm that it didn't really want to freeze you to death. But, if you found yourself in a snow-storm, raging against it was better than just lying down waiting to die. "You do realize you're going after the people who are responsible for decimating the goa'uld population in the Milky Way Galaxy, what makes you think you have even the slightest chance of getting away with this?"

Shesmu responded wordlessy. Before Cassandra had time to brace herself, an orange beam of light shot from the bronze device on the goa'uld's outstretched hand and plunged into her forehead. She screamed in pain, and collapsed, unconscious as the hand device was shut off.

Taken by surprise, Cordelia almost screamed with her, but she bit back the shriek before it escaped her throat. She felt tears gather at her eyes again, but she refused to acknowledge them. "Stop it, please!" Anger warred with confusion. "What was she talking about? Will? Why are you helping these guys?" She glared at the man responsible for her friend's pain. "What did you do to her?" She could see Cassie's chest rise and fall with her pained breathing so she was still alive, but she couldn't understand what had happened. What was that orange-glowy thing and why had it hurt Cassie so much?

"Cordelia," Will sighed in exasperation. She'd never been the best student when they were in school together, and it seems her listening skills had not improved since then. "Lord Shesmu has explained all of this. Your father is responsible for the destruction of Shesmu's master. In the hierarchy of their society, which is kind of feudal, from what I've gathered so far, that means he has the right to extract revenge."

'Delia laughed. She couldn't help herself, and she distinctly heard a note of hysteria in her voice as she replied. "My dad's an archeologist! He's a geek! His house is practically a museum! He helps the Air Force as a scientific and cultural advisor!"

Will frowned. "This is an alien race, a completely new culture! Your father, if he's actually such a scholar as you believe, should realize that! He above all people should recognize the importance of respecting their cultural traditions. Shesmu must complete his task to repay the blood debt incurred by the death of Osiris."

"Are you hearing yourself?" Her voice rose up an octave higher than normal. "Will, please. We can get you help. I'm sorry I was rude to you when we were younger and you had all those bizarre stories about aliens. But you have to understand, this isn't one of your stories! Cassie is hurt, and this weirdo dressed in old prom decorations is not some mythological figure bent on restoring the honor of his tribe or whatever!" Hysteria hadn't quite taken over, but it had a pretty good foothold in Cordelia's mind at the moment, and allowed her to notice the really hideous clash of colors and styles that made up Shesmu's wardrobe. Draping may have been classy at one point, but when the fabric looked like it had been dunked in gold sequins and fringed with feathers, something had gone terribly awry. The kilt was not quite as garish, being of a more subtle silver tone, but the sandals seemed to have been made of some metal cast to look like lion paws. Unfortunately the resulting effect was not quite the intimidating spectacle it probably intended to be, and more than anything else reminded Cordelia of the fuzzy slippers Mel had bought when the Lion King first came out. A strangled laugh escaped her throat. "Please, just let us go!"

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Will knew his first-contact situation had gone terribly wrong, but he refused to let the feelings of inferiority that had followed him throughout his life destroy this chance at greatness! He may not be one-hundred percent of this Lord Shesmu guy, but he was damn well going to see it through. Now let his Grandfather call him a "quitter" in that derogatory tone. Just because he wasn't an Air Force officer like his cousin…. "I'm sorry, Cordelia, that you had to get involved with all of this." He glanced quickly at the other young woman, trying not to notice her bloody nose and bruised features. Swallowing hard, he attempted to imitate his new master's poise, focusing on the fame and fortune he had been promised. "But there was no other way. Your fate is now in the hands of Lord Shesmu."

The goa'uld overlord smiled, or at least turned the ends of his mouth upwards in an horrible approximation of the expression. "Your friend speaks truth. But the time for speaking is through." He nodded to his guards. "Bring them both."

"Okay, here's a list I've compiled of system lords who are still unaccounted for and may have a vendetta and the resources to carry out an attack on me." Daniel slid the folder across the briefing room table to General Landry. "Our contacts with the Asgard report no obvious unrest in their region, and Sam's still trying to get ahold of the Tok'ra." He rubbed his eyes wearily. It had been six hours since he'd gotten the message in the infirmary, and they still had nothing on the whereabouts of Delia or Cassie. And to make matters that much more fun, not only was his burn still hurting, he also was getting a captain of a headache that was soon going to be promoted to major.

"Anything on the earth angle?"

"Well, sir, that's where it gets interesting." Mitchell walked into the room just at that moment, a cup of coffee in one hand and a thick file in the other. He handed the coffee to Daniel, who sipped it gratefully, and slid into the seat next to him.

General Landry leaned forward. "I thought you said you were going to talk to your contacts on P3X-408? O'Neill already looked into a possible NID connection."

Mitchell waved a hand, brushing aside the General's questions. "Teal'c and Vala are off-world seeing if there's any rumors going around about kidnapped taur'i, and Teal'c said he'd talk to the Jaffa. This," he pointed to the file he'd brought in, "is a new earth angle."

"There's nothing to suggest any of my human enemies had anything to do with this. No one even knows Cordelia is related to me, outside this base, and they would have no reason to hit my house since they would know all SGC files would be kept secure on base." The coffee helped a little, but what Daniel really needed right now was a goa'uld sarcophogus. He winced internally even as he thought it. Though it had been years since he'd become addicted to the advanced technology and had nearly lost himself to it, at times like these he almost wished he could get his hands on it again for that feeling of total calm, control, and physical well-being. He hadn't had cravings like this since, well, since the last time they'd almost lost Jack. He tried to get his mind back on track, and closed his eyes to better concentrate. "A goa'uld has infiltrated my home before, and alien enemies would not be aware of military protocol and security issues that make me keep all my work here."

"Exactly." Mitchell flipped open the folder and drew out a picture of Cordelia and her friends from high school.

"What?" Daniel leaned forward in confusion, and grabbed the photo. "Where did you get this?"

"Sam got it, actually, she's working the computer angle, and noticed that Cordelia has an active Facebook page."

"So? A lot of young people do. More and more people our age are also using it to network or keep in touch with old friends. Even Jack was thinking about getting one. But that was only because someone told him you could play Super Mario on it." The archeologist creased his brow in confusion. "We've already established that there was no communication detected by our satellites prior to the kidnapping. Likewise, there was no signs of any ring activity to indicate goa'uld had used an Alkesh or another ship to take the girls." As he listed the alternatives they'd already ruled out, he ticked them off on his fingers. "No forensic evidence was found at the scene, except some non-descript black polyester fibers, and the neighbors didn't see or hear anything useful."

"Just hear me out." A placating hand stemmed the flow. "Cordelia's friends were talking about her newly discovered father. So, anyone who has a facebook account could potentially make the connection. Now we know why they hit your house, and why now, rather than a few months earlier."

General Landry flipped through the file, still skeptical. "That's presuming a human enemy, Mitchell, and we still have no indication of the kidnapper's species."

But Daniel had sat upright, his mind working furiously. "They took Cordelia to get to me, that much is obvious. But how would they even know about her, unless they had some human connection? Cam's got a point, General. Instead of looking out there for an enemy, maybe we should start looking a little closer to home." He pulled his list of System Lords back across the table, and opened the folder hastily. "We should concentrate on finding out if any of these goa'uld have a connection to earth besides us. They would have to have some way of contacting their agent, and if we can track that…"

Mitchell grinned. "Way ahead of you Jackson, for once. Remember our trouble with the Ba'al clones?"

General Landry and Daniel frowned in unison. The General answered for both of them. "Of course, though I for one would rather not. What's your point?"

"Some of them escaped, and not by Stargate. I've got a hunch our kidnappers arrived by ship, somehow slipping through our satellite detection system."

"You mean like Marty's pals." Daniel referred to a TV producing, humanoid extraterrestrial the SGC had dealt with in the past, who had lived on earth unaware of his origin for many years. The mind behind Wormhole X-Treme! was one of the odder allies SG-1 had made, but his people had come to earth in a spaceship that remained undetected for years.

"Something like that, sure."

"If you're right, this could be good news." Landry glanced at Daniel. "If the intent of the kidnapping is to manipulate Dr. Jackson, then there's a good chance the ship is close by." He stood up, indicating the meeting was over and he was ready to give some orders. Mitchell automatically got to his feet as well, though Daniel stayed seated. "Mitchell, I want you and Carter to see what you can do about boosting our sensors. If there's a ship out there, I want it found. Daniel, see what you can find out about any goa'uld and their human contacts. Let's see if this isn't part of a pattern somewhere."