Mal paced his, or rather Lyndon's, quarters aboard the ship as he attempted to figure out a way to free the rest of SG-1. It didn't seem to matter what idea his mind concocted, in the end, he was going to have to blow his cover.

One of the other men stuck his head into the room. "Lyndon, Shaw wants to see you."

"Now?"

"I would assume so."

"All right, I'll be right there." He hoped Shaw hadn't suspected anything. He was quite certain Captain Kain was suspicious. From the squinty-eyed looks, she gave him he knew she was mulling over how he got here when Lyndon was locked up at the SGC. He strode to the flight deck and found Shaw there. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yes, I need to go and meet with Nesrin so I need you to handle the interrogation of SG-1 while I'm gone. Find out what you can and send me a report. If I believe it's worth it, I'll let Nesrin know we have them and you can escort them to the planet where her ship is currently stationed."

"Yes, sir."

Shaw nodded. "Follow me to the Gate."

Mal knew this was a lucky break. If Shaw put him in charge of the interrogations then no one would question why he was going to see the prisoners. It would make freeing them much easier. He walked beside Shaw to the Gate and listened to him prattle on about how paranoid Nesrin was and how going to see her in person was a hassle.

"She did kill off her first set of Seconds, I think you should whine less or at the very least not let her hear you."

Shaw slapped him on the back. "Good point. I'm telling you, Lyn, you are going to go far in the Alliance. You're a good man and I'm glad to have you at my side."

"And I'm happy to be here, sir."

"Right then, now for the rigorous circuit needed to visit Nesrin."

Mal chuckled. "It can't be that bad."

"I have to gate to a world where I'll meet one of her personal guards who will then take me to another planet where I'll be blindfolded, put on a ship, and taken to another planet where we will gate to wherever Nesrin is. Then repeat the process for me to return here."

"Okay, you win, it is bad. I hadn't realized her paranoia had reached that level." Mal replied.

"And I have a feeling it's only going to get worse, especially if the Tau'ri keeps poking at her. Take care of the interrogations and send me a report as soon as you can."

"I will." Mal stepped back and waited while Shaw dialed the Gate. Shaw sent him a wave and stepped through the event horizon. Mal waited until the Gate disengaged before he turned and strode back to the ship. He didn't pause once he was on board, he went straight to the brig where the others were being kept. "Bring the woman, Shaw has given me the task of interrogating SG-1."

"Yes, sir."

With a nod, Mal moved down the corridor to a room and stepped inside. A minute or two later the man dragged Lee into the room and shoved her down to sit in one of the two chairs in the room.

Mal waved toward the door. "Close the door on your way out."

"Sir are you certain it's wise to be alone with her?"

Mal chuckled. "The day I can't handle a woman you can shoot me and save me the trouble of mourning the loss of my manhood. Shaw gave me this task and I am going to complete it. On my own."

"Yes, sir, of course."

"Head back to your post and keep an eye on the other two. They're dangerous."

The guard snorted. "You've seen them, sir, those two are about as far from dangerous as you can get."

It was Mal's turn to snort. "And that is why they keep escaping because idiots like you underestimate them. Dr. Oliver Kain is a scientist who knows a lot about a lot of things. The man is also a well-trained fighter. Dr. Evander Walsh is an accomplished linguist who speaks more languages than I can count. He could blend into just about any culture and hide in plain sight." He gestured to Lee. "And Captain Kain here is, from what I've heard, one hell of a soldier. This woman stole an entire shipment of Naquadah from the Alliance. Now, go back to your post and keep an eye on the good doctors."

The man left with a nod and a wary look at Lee.

The moment the door shut Lee scowled at him. "Touch me and I swear I'll break more things than one might deem necessary in an attempt to escape."

Mal chuckled. "Come now, Captain, it's quite rude to assault a superior officer."

"Ha! I knew it was you, Colonel!" Her look turned sour. "Why in the hell were we left in the dark about this mission?"

"The General thought it would be better if none of you knew what was happening so your reactions to anything that occurred would be natural. She didn't want you to have to lie to the IOA if they began asking questions. How do you think Van would have reacted if he knew it was me when you were captured, his poker face is horrible."

She grinned. "You have a point, sir. Okay, so let's get out of here."

"That will be somewhat of an issue."

"How so? Spring us and we'll run like hell," she replied.

"Do you know how many men are on this ship? Too many, Captain, that is how many. I can't strut you out the front door. The second I come up with a way to get you out of here I will, but until then you three are going to have to play along."

"As you recently pointed out, Van has a terrible poker face. If I tell him you're posing as Lyndon he'll give it away in seconds," she told him.

"Then don't tell him," Mal said.

"It isn't that easy, Colonel!" She looked down at her lap. "I may have kinda told them that I suspected you were posing as Lyndon. Just get us out of here before they ship us off to Nesrin!"

"That isn't going to happen. At least not anytime soon. Shaw has gone to see her, he's waiting for a report from me about the interrogations before he lets her know he's captured you. If he thinks it's a good idea then he said I can escort you to wherever the hell Nesrin is."

"Wait, wait, hold up a minute ... Shaw is gone?" she asked him.

"Yes."

"And he's off-world waiting for you to tell him everything is spiffy so you can take us to Nesrin?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"No offense, sir, but you're a moron," she told him.

"Excuse me?"

"Escort us to Shaw!" She rolled her eyes. "Tell the men you spoke to Shaw and he ordered you to escort us to Nesrin! We stroll off the ship and gate home. They won't know the difference!"

"It won't be that easy, I'm sure some of the guards will insist on accompanying us through the Gate!" he told her.

She flapped a hand at him. "Please, there are enough men at the SGC to handle whoever comes with us."

Mal chewed his bottom lip as he thought about her plan. It did make sense. Shaw had entrusted him with the task of questioning them. If he told the men he was escorting them to Shaw and Nesrin they'd likely believe him.

"All right, go along with me and we'll get the hell out of here." He yanked the door open. "Take her back to the cell," he yelled to the guard.

The man hurried over. Is everything all right?" the man asked him.

"Yes, I know where Colonel Hughes is. The Captain here was nice enough to let the information slip. She was too busy insulting me, my manhood, and anything else she could think of to realize what she was saying. You see, if sit back and allow a woman to ramble they'll give you all the information you need. I need to contact Shaw and let him know that SG-1 gave up the location of their commander. I'm sure Nesrin will want to question them further. Grab a couple of men to help you take them to the Gate and I'll meet you there."

"Yes, sir, of course." He grabbed Lee's arm and hauled her from the seat.

"How do you know I let that information slip? Maybe I wanted you to know it, maybe it's a trap so we can kill all of you losers!" She laughed as the man dragged her from the room. "You're gonna die!" she yelled in a sing-song voice.

Mal shook his head and strode back up to his quarters. Once he was in the room, he removed a small storage device from beneath the mattress and shoved it into his pocket. He'd been downloading information from the ship's computers whenever he had easy access. He'd managed to gather a large amount of data in the short time he was here. Nesrin might be a paranoid bitch, but Shaw was overly trusting of his men. Especially, it seemed Lyndon. He left the ship and marched to the Gate where the men were waiting with Lee, Van, and Oliver.

"Well, SG-1 you'll soon be Nesrin's problem."

"Kiss my ass," Lee snapped.

"I would love to, Captain Kain, but we simply don't have the time for such a rendezvous."

"Asshole," she muttered.

"Lee, I don't think it's wise to insult the people holding us hostage," Oliver told her.

"You'd do well to listen to your baby brother, Captain. At least one of you has some sense."

"Thank you," Oliver answered. "Wait a minute, I am not her baby brother! She's only two minutes older than me!"

Mal turned to one of the men. "Keep a close eye on them. If we lose them Nesrin isn't going to be pleased."

"Yes, sir."

With a nod, Mal turned away from them, went to the DHD, and began dialing the Gate. The moment it connected he made certain the code the IDC sent would tell the SGC they were coming in under duress. When they emerged on the other side they were met with a room full of soldiers with their guns aimed at them.

"Well, dammit it all, it seems that I've misdialed."

"What the hell is the meaning of this?" one of the men bellowed. "Explain yourself, Lyndon."

"Ah, see, that's a little difficult."

The man's gun swung over and he trained it on Mal. "Explain!"

"I suggest you put the gun down or all these nice men," Mal stopped to indicate the soldiers in the room. "Will shoot you."

"Explain!" the man demanded again.

"All right, well for starters I am not Lyndon." He reached beneath his shirt and removed the mimic device. "I'm Colonel Malachy Hughes and you can either lower your weapons or die, you choose."

The men hesitated a moment. When the soldiers in the room took a collective step forward they decided surrender was their best option and gave up their weapons.

Sam stepped forward. "How did the mission go, Colonel?"

"Fine, until these three got themselves captured and I had to spring them." He pulled out the storage device. "I got everything I could from the ship's computers. I have also discovered that we'll never get any of Nesrin's men to give up her location. According to Shaw, she's so paranoid even her Seconds don't know exactly where she is. She forces them to gate to a world, has one of her guards meet them, blindfold them and fly them to another world where they then gate to wherever she is."

"The woman isn't very trusting, is she?"

"No, she's become excessively paranoid," Mal told her.

"Well let's hope there's something useful in the information you found." She waved the storage device in the air. "Get some rest, SG-1, we'll debrief tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Sam left to take the storage device to be looked at.

"You should have told us about this," Lee snapped. "We are a team and I don't like that you couldn't trust us enough to tell us what was happening." She stalked from the Gate room.

"She has a point, Mal," Oliver told him.

"I for one am kinda glad we weren't told because I never could have kept it to myself once we were captured," Van offered.

Mal grinned at him. "The General wanted your reactions to be natural. She thought it was for the best if as few people as possible knew about the mission. She didn't want the IOA to show up and try to get in on it."

Oliver nodded. "That makes sense. If your idiot brother found out about the mission I bet he'd find a way to have you locked out so you couldn't come back. He'd probably claim it was too dangerous and you'd be found out."

"Yup, I'm sure he would. Come on, let's go try and talk the Captain out of her snit."

Van chuckled. "That could take a while."

"Well, we have time."

"How was it, being stuck with those Alliance guys?" Van asked as they left the Gate room.

"They aren't such a bad group. Shaw is a nice guy, he looks out for his crew. And I think he truly believes that he's helping the poorer planets by offering them a chance to grow Kassa. I guess even murdering, crack-corn growing thieves can be likable."

Both Oliver and Van laughed at his remark.

"Captain!" Mal yelled when he spotted Lee down the corridor. "Wait up!"

She stopped and pivoted slowly to face him. "I don't want to talk to you right now. I need some space for a bit."

"Come on, Lee, you know the General's decision to keep us in the dark was the right choice. If the IOA found out about the mission they would have screwed things up and Elias would have had Mal locked out of the system," Van told her.

Her shoulders slumped slightly. "Yes, fine I get it." She looked at Mal and pointed at him. "You are going to take us out for dinner and you will pay to make it up to us."

He laughed. "Agreed."

Van grinned at them. "O'Malley's?"

"Yes, I think the Colonel owes us steaks and beer!"

Mal laughed at her enthusiasm. "Fine, let's change and get moving."

"Steak!" Lee shouted before she ran in the direction of the locker room.

Mal shook his head as he watched Oliver and Van chase after her. It was good to be home.