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managed to blow the ship’s main fuse at the last moment.
    Still, there was no telling how long any of them had before Apophis came looking for his missing technician. And reactivating the ship might be the only way of answering those questions in time.
    He sighed. “Okay, plug it in.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “Yeah. Just try not to blow us up, okay?”
    “I’ll do my best,” Carter said absently. She was already reaching down into the relay, twisting two of the crystals, pressing a third back down into its socket…
    There was a jolt, and a soft whine that faded away to nothing. The light from the relay changed from pulsing amber to a calm, steady green.
    O’Neill looked around. The rest of the ship was still dark. “That was… Unsatisfying.”
    “Hm,” said Carter, and twisted another crystal.
    The cockpit lit up.
    The change was enough to make O’Neill start, but almost instantly he saw that the vessel was far from repaired. The light that had appeared when Carter had triggered that final crystal wasn’t coming from the ceiling, but instead was a dim, ruddy glow issuing from small panels near the floor. Several of the exposed sets of crystals were blinking fitfully, though, and smaller lights were winking on the three control boards. Something had worked, if only partially.
    Daniel was standing up, peering about. “What is this, emergency power?”
    “Maybe there’s another relay,” said Carter. She got up and went over to the centre board. O’Neill watched her press several controls in sequence.
    A wide panel in the centre of the console changed from being golden metal into a slab of what looked like illuminated glass.
    “Whoah,” said O’Neill. “Carter, what did you just do?”
    “I think this board is Sephotep’s test panel. Patch feeds come off a lot of the new systems and filter through data crystals to here, so I’m guessing…” She trailed off, then grinned. “Got it!”
    He joined her at the console. The panel was alive with graphics; animated diagrams and graphs in sharp blue-white vector, streams of Goa’uld hieroglyphs rolling down like tickertape. “Can you read this?”
    “I’m just looking at the pictures. Teal’c?”
    O’Neill stepped aside to let the Jaffa get close to the panel. He kept his silence as the big man studied the graphics for several seconds.
    “You are correct, Major Carter,” Teal’c said finally. “The panel monitors the systems data for this entire vessel. I believe Sephotep was recording this information continually before the power failed.”
    “Does it say
why
the power failed?”
    “The error was Sephotep’s. This vessel has many extra systems — an enhanced hyperdrive, sensors, weapons. Sephotep was attempting to activate too many at once.”
    “Guys?” said Daniel.
    “Wait.” Teal’c was scowling down at the panel, tracing a line of moving hieroglyphs with a fingertip. “Sephotep was readying the weapons to fire.”
    “Holy…” O’Neill glanced reflexively towards the front of the ship, to where the temple would be if he’d been able to see though half a ton of loose rock. “He was lining up to fire on the refugees!”
    “A strafing run,” Teal’c agreed. He straightened. “However, he could not have relayed that information back to Apophis.”
    “Yeah, he’d be here already.”
    “Ah, guys?” said Daniel again. He was near one of the forward boards, pointing down at the metal panels there. “I think this might be important…”
    Teal’c darted forwards, startlingly fast. “A locator beacon.”
    Carter ran over to join him. “Daniel? How long was this —”
    “I noticed it blinking as soon as I looked over here.”
    “Well switch it the hell off!” O’Neill poked his head through hatchway. The clouds above him were heavy, sluggish, and bluish sparks flickered from one to another. Lightning, he hoped.
    “I cannot,” Teal’c replied. “Major Carter, disengage the phase relay.”
    “Already trying…” There