Nesert

2.11

Episode 8.01 "New Order Part 1" and Episode 8.02 "New Order Part 2"

The trip was taxing mentally. She spent much of her time diving into Sekhmet's memories, but that hardly prepared her for her return to the SGC and the people there. She should be trying to dull the Sekhmet influence, not strengthen it, but there was nothing for Nes to latch onto, nothing to promote her own interests. She tried to think of Elliot, but Sekhmet's voice kept insisting that he would never accept her as she truly was. She dreaded seeing him more and more as they approached the planet she'd once called home. That seemed so long ago.

She beamed herself down to her house in Colorado Springs after a few scans to make sure no one was watching. It was dark and cool and quiet and, after throwing her bags into her bedroom, she went straight to the fridge for a beer and pulled out her phone.

Sam showed up about a half hour and three beers later and Nes went to let the agitated major in.

"Where have you been?"

"Mostly Los Angeles." The truth.

"Mostly?"

"Well, technically my house is in Malibu." Still the truth.

"And you didn't think to come back when all hell broke loose? Or at least check in?"

Nes sat down in one of the armchairs in the living room. "I didn't hear about it when it happened." A partial truth.

"How could you miss it, Nes? Ships were destroyed, power grids targeted. We had to cover it all with a freak meteor shower story."

Nes rubbed her face. "I wasn't sober enough to be paying attention, Sam." The lies had to start, Sekhmet's lion that would eventually maul and devour.

Sam was silent at this confession.

"I'm not proud of it and I know it was reckless, but I...I just couldn't cope anymore."

Sam's face shifted to sympathy and the lion clawed at Nes with guilt. "I shouldn't have let you go alone. I'm sorry." And here was Sam apologizing when Nes was the one that had betrayed them all.

Nes leaned forward into her hands. "How was Lt. Elliot when I didn't come back?" She had to know.

"You haven't called him yet? He was worried as expected. Mad that we'd let you disappear. You should let him know you're back."

Nes shrugged. "So fill me in. What happened if it wasn't a meteor shower?"

"Anubis came with a fleet thinking we'd found the Lost City of the Ancients."

"Did you?"

"No, but Jack put his head into one of the Ancient Repositories again and eventually that knowledge directed us to an Ancient outpost on Antarctica. There's a chair thing there that Jack sat in and then fired drones at Anubis' fleet."

"Wow. I really did miss stuff. But awesome...we have a weapon to defend Earth now."

"Well...not exactly. We're not sure if we can get it to even work again."

"Well, hopefully just the threat of it keeps enemies away for a while."

"That's what we're counting on, though the System Lords have already tried to test it. They came here to try forming an alliance with Earth against Ba'al, who somehow found Anubis' secret base and has control of his fleet and Kull Warriors. Fortunately for us, the ship the System Lords sent was also destroyed by Ba'al so it never came down to us using the weapon."

Nes leaned back in the chair, showing no interest in the revelations regarding Ba'al. "So how's Jack? Didn't the Ancient knowledge nearly kill him last time?"