Diplomacy (16/27)
Title: Diplomacy ( Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Pairings: Gen.
Chapter1a-- 1b Chapter2 Chapter3 Chapter4 Chapter5a-- 5b Chapter6 Chapter7 Chapter8 Chapter9 Chapter10 Chapter11a-- 11b Chapter12 Chapter13a-- 13b Chapter14a-- 14b Chapter15a-- 15b Chapter16 Chapter17a-- 17b Chapter18 Chapter19 Chapter20 Chapter21 Chapter22 Chapter23 Chapter24 Chapter25 Chapter26 Epilogue
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Consequences, Part II
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11 December 1998; Area 51; 0900 hrs
"I've been thinking," Daniel said as they walked through the corridors, trailing after Carter, who was herself following Major Reynolds at a distance. Fraiser was off doing something with someone in some lab or infirmary, which meant the rest of them had been roped into falling in line behind Carter as she sniffed out the coolest piece of new tech, although Jack was getting a little wary of the way Daniel was eyeing some of the linguistics offices.
"Well, stop it," Jack said automatically, because it was such an easy line.
Daniel ignored him. "If the healing device had come through the SGC, one of us would have seen it. For a Goa'uld object, when no one knew what it was--even though Sam would have known--someone should have asked Teal'c if he recognized it, even if somehow none of us here noticed it."
"So..."
"So, it didn't come through our Stargate," Daniel said.
"Y'think?" That was the one thing they'd already known before arriving.
"The only other possibility I could think of at first was that it was left behind by some Goa'uld before the Stargate was buried at Giza, and the NID picked it up between the first Abydos mission and the restarting of the Stargate program. We know they kept working during those years. But that's not possible, either." Reynolds glanced back at them, as if wondering what they were saying, but didn't ask and didn't comment.
Carter nodded. "You mean because they have a planet designation for where it was found."
"Which they couldn't know if they had just found it lost on Earth somewhere," Daniel agreed.
"They could've made that up. Pulled the designation out of the air," Jack said, but Carter shook her head.
"I don't think so, sir. I called back to the base to check. P8B-146 is one of the planets found on the Abydos cartouche, but not one we've been to. In fact, its coordinates were recalculated just about a week ago, long after the device had arrived here."
"You're sure we've never been there."
"Positive. Without recalculation, we literally couldn't have established a wormhole, much less sent a team."
Jack hated having to ask, but... "Who did you call, Captain?"
"Sir, I don't think Colonel Maybourne was right when he said the problem might be on our end," she said, "but I had to make sure. I called two technicians independent of each other to check the database, and I had Sergeant Siler go through the dialing computer to check for tampering without telling him why I was asking. General Hammond confirmed that there have never been any missions to P8B-146. Everything checks out with enough people that I think we're safe on our side."
"Good," he said, relieved. They didn't need problems on more than one front, and definitely not in their own backyard. "So it definitely never came through our 'gate."
She stopped. Jack pulled up short just before he could run into her.
Reynolds noticed belatedly and walked back to them to see what the problem was. "Captain? Colonel?"
Carter turned around to look at Jack. "They have another Stargate here," she said.
Jack stared at her, hoping she would chuckle and tell him that she was just kidding, sir, there was no way--except... "Crap," he said.
"Well, we don't know if they're actually using it--"
Screw that. "Reynolds," Jack said, "where are they keeping it?"
"The Antarctica Stargate, sir?" Reynolds answered, confused and indignant at the implication.
"What, is there another one?" Jack returned. Then, more seriously, "There's not another one, is there?" It was Area 51, after all. Stranger things had probably happened.
"As far as I know, it hasn't been moved in years. It should still be down in the--"
"After you, Major," he interrupted, ignoring Carter's reproving look. Reynolds looked like he wanted to argue, then turned and led the way.
"Jack," Daniel said, trotting a little to catch up, "you don't think they're really...I mean, that's a pretty extreme possibility based on a few possibilities we might have ruled out."
Jack thought about just how long the Stargate had been in this facility without anyone's knowledge and replied, "You were the one suspicious about them last year, Daniel. You have another suggestion?" His silence was answer enough. Carter looked like she wanted to offer something, but shook her head as well. "Well, then. No offense, Major," he added to Reynolds, "but if it's something else, we'll find out pretty soon, and we're the ones who'll end up looking like the asses."
Reynolds spared him a glance and replied with an unhappy, "Yes, sir."
The hidden underground section of the facility that Carter's team had found when Hathor had tried to escape through the so-called Antarctica Stargate wasn't hidden anymore, now that everyone knew someone had dragged a 'gate in here. It also apparently wasn't being used, anymore, since no one was in the area when they walked in, and there was only a large box lying flat on the ground in place of the Stargate.
"I don't think there's been much work done on this project recently," Reynolds said. "Both the 'gate and the DHD were packed away for storage after the scientists figured out how the DHD worked, as far as they could, but everything's right over there, in the boxes."
Jack glanced at Carter, who confirmed, "I've read their final reports, and, combined with what we've seen ourselves, they would've needed technology as advanced as the Ancient database to figure out more information than they sent us."
"Can you tell if it's been used?" he asked her as Daniel moved toward the box that housed the Stargate, starting to pull off the top and to peer interestedly into it at the subtle differences between this 'gate and the one they used at the SGC. "It came with a DHD, after all; it could've been used to get anywhere."
"I can't tell directly, sir, not without computer analysis of the storage crystals, but I can take a look."
"Fine," he said, gesturing her forward. Carter made her way to the crate that the DHD was stored in. "Reynolds, you know who was involved in this project?"
"Like I said, sir, no one at the moment," Reynolds repeated. "I'm not one of the scientists, and I'm still relatively new around here. There are other people who'd have a better idea--Agent Barrett, maybe, or Lieutenant Tobias, she's involved with almost all the research."
Carter looked up briefly. "Clare Tobias?"
"Yeah," Reynolds confirmed.
Jack raised his eyebrows at her. "Friend of yours, Carter?"
"I knew her from the Academy," she explained as she opened the box containing the DHD. "Brilliant. If the SGC hadn't been looking for theoretical physicists more than mechanical engineers in the early days, she probably would've been there with us right now. I guess she never reapplied because she got a position here."
"We're gonna want to talk to Tobias," Jack told Reynolds. Someone who'd known enough about the Stargate program to try to get in, whom even Carter thought was brilliant...not really a question why the NID would want her.
"Yes, sir," Reynolds said stiffly. "I'll have someone page her once you're done here."
Suddenly, Daniel turned, his brow furrowed and one hand pressed against the Stargate. "Teal'c? This feels...strange."
"What, like not stone?" Jack asked.
"No. Yes. Well...no," Daniel replied in his typically clear way. He didn't explain until Teal'c was there, as well. "Do you feel that?"
"Nothing," Teal'c said, but it was a low, ominous tone, not dismissive.
"Uh, Colonel," Carter said a second later, pulling up the cover over the DHD's control crystals. "The crystals have been replaced with plastic. And the DHD itself doesn't seem to contain naquadah."
Reynolds did a double-take, hurrying forward to check for himself. "What?"
"It's what?" Jack echoed.
"Fake, sir," she said helplessly.
"As is the Stargate," Teal'c confirmed, running experienced fingers over the ring. "I am also unable to detect the presence of naquadah."
To his credit, Reynolds looked genuinely shocked as he asked, "Are...are you sure?"
Jack pointed at the team around him. "We've got one person with a symbiote in his stomach, one person with the Goa'uld protein, and one person with trace naquadah in his blood. The only better naquadah sensor than these three is--"
"Sir, zero readings," Carter said, holding up a handheld device.
"--a naquadah sensor," Jack finished. "So, Major Reynolds, your turn. Want to explain?"
"I...can't, sir," Reynolds insisted.
Jack peeked at the fake ring of stone and rolled his eyes. "Hell, even I can tell this thing isn't real! Haven't you ever seen a Stargate before?"
"No, sir," Reynolds said. "Not outside of pictures."
That gave him pause, and he realized that, given how new this line of work was and how drastically the Stargate sections of Area 51 had been reorganized just in the last year, there was a good probability that someone recently assigned here, like Reynolds, never would have seen a real Stargate, especially if research on it had been stopped. That left, then, a smaller pool of people who could have a hand in this.
"Major, think about what the punishment is for losing a Stargate," Jack warned, probing for information. "I shouldn't have to tell you how serious this is."
"No, sir, no, you don't--but I can't explain it, because I don't know how this could have happened. This place is guarded twenty-four seven, and Colonel Maybourne's usually--"
"Ah. Maybourne," Jack repeated, catching on the name and easily willing to believe Maybourne had something to do with it. "Where is he now, Major?"
More subdued, Reynolds replied, "Last I heard, he was being confined in the infirmary, sir. He seems to be experiencing some kind of..." He hesitated.
"Narcotic withdrawal?" Carter inserted.
"Apparently, yes."
Told you so, Jack barely stopped himself from saying. "He's your supervisor?" he asked instead. "Have you noticed anything...odd about him?"
"I haven't been working here long," Major Reynolds said again, but admitted, "He has been pretty absent in recent weeks. I thought that might be just how he was."
"When I met him, Colonel Maybourne struck me as a very meticulous person about everything," Daniel offered.
"Well," Jack said. "I think we need to find him and have a chat."
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11 December 1998; Area 51; 1030 hrs
Someone was yelling in the direction of the infirmary. Alarmed, Jack picked up his pace and realized it wasn't someone so much as someones, and by the time he reached the door--
"Oh my god," Carter said.
"Daniel, no, don't come in," Jack said, pushing him back, away from the door, but not before he got a good eyeful of Harry Maybourne strapped to the bed, pulling against his restraints while a nurse hurriedly pressed an oxygen mask onto his face and people bustling around the bed yelled about heart rate's through the roof and respiration and shutting down--
"Ay," Daniel breathed as he was pulled away, so stunned he wasn't even resisting. "Is that Colonel Maybourne? What--what's wrong with him?" He flinched as a crash sounded, like a tray of something falling off a table.
Jack peeked back in and caught sight of Dr. Fraiser assisting. As if she could feel his gaze, Fraiser glanced up and said tersely, "Not now, Colonel."
Another doctor next to her ordered, "Everyone without a medical degree--out. Now."
Jack barely backed out before the door slammed in his face, cutting off both shouts and sights. "So," he said, looking around himself and finding Major Davis there, as well, apparently drawn to the commotion.
"What were they doing to him?" Daniel asked, looking horrified. "They tied him to the bed."
"Yeah," Carter said, her tone disturbed. "I guess we were right about the effects of the sarcophagus. I just never imagined the withdrawal would be quite so...severe." She blinked at the closed door, then shook her head as if to clear it. "Oh. Whoa."
"That's from the sarcophagus?" Daniel was saying. "That's what happens to you if you're addicted to it?"
"I can't believe this," Reynolds muttered, rubbing his head.
"Which part?" Jack said. "The thing with Maybourne or the fake Stargate?"
"Both, sir," Reynolds said, as Major Davis turned to them to echo, "Fake Stargate?"
"Yeah, something you might want to mention to your bosses," Jack told Davis. "The real Stargate is missing. Color me surprised."
"It's...missing?"
"We came here to ask Colonel Maybourne about it," Carter said, shaking her head again like she was trying to get water out of her ears or something. Jack frowned, wondering what was going on with her, but she looked like she was too busy trying to figure something out to notice. "We suspect the real Stargate may have been in use at some point."
"Hate to break it to you, Captain," Jack said, trying to erase the images of Maybourne from his mind, looking almost lifeless until he reacted violently to something some doctor did. It was the man's own damn fault. Maybourne had brought this on himself; what kind of idiot subjected himself to alien devices any more than he absolutely had to? His own fault. Right? Right. Jesus. "But I don't think we're talking to him any time soon."
"You think?" Daniel said, his voice distracted and still stiff with shock.
"What?" Jack asked him, surprised.
"What?" Daniel replied blankly.
The opening of the infirmary door interrupted them. Fraiser stuck her head out, hands still gloved. "Clear the hallway," she told them breathlessly. "His condition's deteriorating. We need to get him to the sarcophagus."
"No!" Carter said abruptly. "You can't."
"Sam," Fraiser said, with an anxious look back at where the only sound remaining was the beeping of monitors, "this is putting too much stress on his body. Something with the regenerative abilities of the sarcophagus might be the only thing that can help him."
"'Might,' meaning that there's a chance he won't need it. The sarcophagus changes a person," she insisted. "It takes something away from you. From your..." She darted a glance at the rest of them and cleared her throat. "Your kalach."
Jack felt his eyebrows shoot up and try to crawl into his hairline.
"Soul," Daniel provided, dragging the word out into a question. He and Teal'c were both looking at Carter oddly, as well.
"Right, yes," Carter said, determinedly looking only at Fraiser. "It does...bad things to you. That's why the Tok'ra don't use it, Janet. It's one of the things that separate them from the System Lords. Get it?"
Fraiser's eyes widened fractionally, as if she heard something the rest of them didn't. "I see."
"Well, I don't," Jack said.
Carter turned to him now. "Sir, Colonel Maybourne has become physically dependent on the effects of the sarcophagus. We cannot let his addiction get any worse. Going by this timescale, he would need to use the sarcophagus at least once every, what, two or three days, even assuming that its effects won't be exacerbated by increased use."
"It would keep him alive," Fraiser said, though she looked like she was considering the warning pretty seriously. "We could wean him off..."
"Alive at what price?" Carter pressed. "And there's no weaning someone off from sarcophagus use, that much I know. It's all or nothing at this point. Daniel, you've met Colonel Maybourne before. Was he acting yesterday the way he did before he was revived by the sarcophagus?"
Daniel glanced up once at Jack, then shook his head wordlessly.
"And it'll only get worse," she went on, "until we essentially have the human equivalent of a Goa'uld on our hands. Janet, trust me--use whatever medical means needed to keep him alive, but the sarcophagus will only make things worse in the long run."
Jack often thought Carter and Fraiser spent time conspiring behind their backs--some woman military scientist bonding thing or whatever--and he was getting more convinced the longer they held their staring contest while the rest of them were left in the dark. What was that about the Tok'ra, again, and since when had Carter started talking in Goa'uld and needing Daniel, of all people, to fill in the English equivalent?
But Fraiser finally nodded in agreement. "I'll talk to the doctors." She turned back around and disappeared again through the infirmary doors.
Jack found himself staring at Carter along with everyone else. "So, I'm confused," he said. "Anyone else confused?"
"O'Neill," Teal'c said. "We can do nothing further here. We must locate the Stargate."
"Never thought I'd hear that on Earth," Major Davis said, looking even more lost than Jack was. "I'm assuming there's no easy trick to doing that."
"If you want to get out of the corridor, there's a conference room you can use, sir," Reynolds offered. "Colonel Maybourne's the highest ranking official who might know anything, but I can ask around, see if anyone's noticed something wrong. Tobias, maybe; she works with the colonel a lot."
Jack eyed him for a moment, still not completely sure who was or wasn't in on this. It was Davis who agreed, "That would help, Major."
Reynolds left them in a conference room like the one they'd been in the evening before. "Carter, get on the phone to Hammond," Jack ordered. "See if he can help us out."
She nodded, moving to a corner to speak quietly, and Davis pulled out his phone at the same time. "I'll see if someone in Washington has any information about this."
"No," Jack said immediately. "Who was in charge of the Antarctica Stargate, Davis? The NID. And who's in charge of the NID?"
"Colonel O'Neill," Davis protested, "you can't be suggesting that someone in the highest military command in this country could be involved."
"Someone went to a lot of trouble to do this," Jack said. "There's a fake Stargate and DHD, and the real ones just vanished into thin air. Someone with clout has got a hand in this."
"Yes, sir, this is Captain Carter," Carter was saying into her phone.
"How do you know it's not someone at Stargate Command?" Davis said, but he reluctantly put his phone away. "If anyone has the resources for an operation like this..."
"It's not. Carter's checked separately with three or four people, and they've confirmed that it's not us."
Davis looked between him and Carter, his expression becoming wary. "With all due respect, sir, I don't have any assurance of that."
"Yeah?" Jack snapped. "Well, I don't know if I trust you, either, Davis."
The major drew himself up. "I've cooperated with every request of the SGC so far. Moreover, I--and the people I work for--am based across the country from all of this. There are many people who have had greater contact with the Stargate program and the Stargates than we have."
"Are you accusing one of us of stealing a Stargate, Major?" Jack asked.
Davis remained impassive. "I would never say that, sir."
"Come on, why would we even be here if we had anything to do with it? There's a fake 'gate down there that no one's noticed for who knows how long; if we'd been involved, we would've just met you at Colorado and left well enough alone!"
"Colonel," Carter said as she hung up, "he's right. We have no reason to believe Major Davis is involved."
"And he has no reason to believe we're involved," Jack added, watching the major until he nodded.
"No, sir, you're right, I don't," Davis conceded stiffly. "But we still have a problem."
"Yes, we do. Carter? What's the news?"
"General Hammond hasn't heard anything," Carter said, "but I wasn't really expecting him to have. He's been asking around discretely since I called him yesterday, and he'll keep looking now that we know it's a little more urgent."
"See if anyone's heard of a stolen Stargate?" Jack asked sarcastically.
"Mm," Daniel said thoughtfully. "That would be hard, wouldn't it?" When stares turned to him at the painful obviousness of the statement, he clarified, "Well, I mean, the Stargate is very..." He gestured widely with his hands."...big. They can't have taken it very far, right? Just physically, it can't be easy to move around, especially without being seen. It wouldn't possibly fit in a car, or an airplane."
"Well, actually, Daniel," Carter said, "there are aircraft and other vehicles bigger than the ones you've seen--large enough to carry even something as big as a Stargate."
"Oh."
"But," Jack said, extracting his hands from his pockets as he realized, "not without being noticed by someone, somewhere, if you dig deep enough."
Carter turned to him, looking cautiously hopeful. "Could it be that simple? Figure out if something large enough to carry a Stargate has made a stop here recently?"
"Large enough and classified enough," Jack added.
"That's assuming it's not here anymore," Davis pointed out. "It could have simply been moved somewhere else in the facility."
"I don't think so, sir," Carter said. "I think we can assume now that our suspicions were correct, and that the healing device was brought back to Earth through use of the Antarctica Stargate. It couldn't have been used here without catching the wrong people's attention. Or the right people, as the case may be."
The door opened, and Reynolds returned. "I'm sorry, sir; I talked to the head scientists who worked on the Stargate and DHD, and no one's saying anything."
"Because they don't know, or because they won't say?" Jack asked.
"I don't think they're lying, sir, if that's what you're asking."
"Of course," Jack muttered.
"Lieutenant Tobias is away on business for Colonel Maybourne," Reynolds added, grimacing. "Can't be reached at the moment."
"That's not fishy at all," he answered in resignation, thinking he wouldn't be surprised by much of anything anymore. "Then we'll have to hope Hammond can pick something up."
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11 December 1998; Area 51; 1500 hrs
"They took it to Utah?" Carter asked when they heard the news. "Really?"
"Two months ago?" Daniel added.
"That's what General Hammond said," Jack said. "Or that's what it looks like, anyway. There was a top secret requisition for a C-5, and it went from here to Utah two months ago. There's not a lot that's so secret Hammond wouldn't be able to get to the source of it, and the C-5 is a big plane."
"It fits," Carter agreed.
"Wh--but," Daniel said. "I mean, no one noticed for two months?"
Reynolds shook his head when they turned to him. "Don't ask me. Like I said, it's been packed away since before I transferred here."
Teal'c shifted impatiently. "For what reason do we remain here when we know the location of the Stargate?"
"Someone will notice if we fly off unscheduled from here and head for Utah," Jack grumbled, repeating Hammond's orders. "And since this facility is where this...fake Stargate crap all started, we'd rather not raise any more eyebrows than we need to."
"But someone else is going covertly, right? From the SGC?" Daniel clarified.
"Makepeace volunteered. He's leading SG-3 there right now."
"And General Hammond said it's not a military operation?" Major Davis clarified.
"Not according to his sources, it's not," Jack said. "And you know what isn't a military organization?"
"The NID," Teal'c filled in.
"Nice coincidence, wouldn't you say?"
"Sir," Reynolds said, "I'm not questioning General Hammond's word, but there has to be something more going on. I know for a fact that the people here are loyal to Earth and to the interests of the SGC."
"Everyone here?" Jack said. "You know for a fact what every single person's allegiances are?"
Davis stood before Reynolds could answer. "I need to let someone know about this, now that it looks like a rogue operation."
"There are obviously still influential people involved," Jack said. "I'm talking people who have enough power to get a fake Stargate made and have the real one hauled away to Utah in an Air Force plane without anyone in the Air Force knowing about it, not to mention stonewalling General Hammond when he's trying to get through to the President."
"Which means someone doesn't want the President to know," Davis pointed out. "Colonel, unless you think the President himself or the Joint Chiefs are part of a conspiracy, I have to tell them."
Wouldn't that be a pain in the butt. But if the President wanted to start using the second 'gate, he wouldn't have to do it behind anyone's back, and Hammond wouldn't have found himself cut off from the man, so Jack conceded, "Maybe you're right. Go ahead, Davis, but make sure they're aware that this looks like something that goes pretty high up."
Reynolds followed Davis out. "I should see what Colonel Maybourne's condition is."
Once the four of them were alone in the conference room, Daniel pointed out, "About what Major Reynolds said, that people here were loyal to Earth and the SGC...Colonel Maybourne said the same thing, too, last year, but he was still hiding something."
"He didn't say that, exactly," Carter said. "From what I heard, he said he was loyal to Earth; he didn't say anything about the SGC. In fact, I think it's clear where he stands with regard to that."
"One kind of implies the other, Carter," Jack said, "considering the SGC represents Earth in the galactic neighborhood."
"To us, it does, and to people on other planets. But there might be others here who have similar goals and disagree on the methods."
"What, well-meaning rebels?" he said sardonically.
"Yes, sir," she answered seriously. "Exactly that. Not everyone here, I'm sure, but maybe some people think the best way to defend our planet is to collect technology, like the healing device, with or without authorization. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there's a lot more technology, in fact, that we've simply never seen or heard about."
"But why would they have sent us information about the healing device at all?" Daniel said. "They had to know it would catch someone's attention at the SGC."
"Careless," Carter suggested. "Someone made a mistake."
"Hell of a thing to be careless about when you're running an illegal operation," Jack commented.
"Unless...the person wasn't thinking clearly at the time," Daniel said, raising his eyebrows.
"The sarcophagus," Carter said, on the same page. "I know we don't have concrete evidence yet, but one name does keep surfacing. Colonel Maybourne probably hasn't been...well, himself for quite some time now. It's been several months since he was first revived."
Jack nodded, dropping into a seat around the conference table. "Unfortunately, how much do you want to bet we won't be finding many more obvious breadcrumbs that lead to Maybourne?"
"I would not accept such a wager, O'Neill," Teal'c said in agreement.
"Jack," Daniel said, sounding uncomfortable, "we don't even know if Colonel Maybourne is okay."
"Yeah, well," Jack said, "if he pulls through...it'll still be a while before he's anywhere near 'okay' again. Speaking of the sarcophagus...Carter? You have something to tell the class?" When she hesitated, he prompted, "Sudden knowledge of Goa'uld words? 'The Tok'ra don't use the sarcophagus?' Ring a bell?"
"Well, recently...I've been having some dreams," she said uncomfortably.
"Dreams?"
"They're almost like...visions, I suppose."
"Visions," Jack repeated, dumbfounded. "What, like ESP?"
"Like memories, sir."
Daniel narrowed his eyes. "About the Tok'ra. Sam, are you talking about Jolinar?"
"Yes," Carter said, sounding relieved that someone got it.
Jack turned on the two people in the room who, more than anyone, were supposed to be the logical, rational ones with fully functioning brains. "You both..." He stopped. "Visions."
"Sha'uri retained memories from Amaunet's mind even when Amaunet was suppressed," Daniel said, looking for all the world like he thought it would be kind of cool to have a vision. "That's what you mean, right, Sam, that you're seeing Jolinar's memories?"
Carter glanced at Jack and confirmed, "I think so. Janet thinks it's possible."
Teal'c seemed more interested now. "Do you then possess knowledge of the Goa'uld resistance, Captain Carter?"
"Not exactly. I get...flashes of memory sometimes, in my dreams, or when I'm looking at something familiar, but it's just bits and pieces. Most of it isn't very clear at all, but I had a very clear impression earlier today that the Tok'ra associate the sarcophagus with evil." She shrugged. "That's all it was, sir."
Jack squinted at the table. When it didn't answer his questions, he asked her, "And you didn't think to mention these visions earlier?"
"There didn't seem to be anything to mention earlier, sir, and I did tell Janet Fraiser."
"But not us."
"I didn't know they were real," she said defensively. "Janet thought they were some...just...dreams. Reactions to the"--she moved her hand toward the back of her neck--"experience. It seemed like a personal issue at first, so it was something I only discussed with my friend and doctor."
"Knowledge about Goa'uld technology seemed like a personal issue, Carter?"
Sounding like she was trying not to grit her teeth, she answered, "Like I said, sir, even after I figured out that they were from Jolinar, they're intermittent memories. Some of them have been of an unclear and...personal nature. Today was the first time anything relevant has come out of it."
"Ah," Jack said, still not quite understanding but thinking that he might want to back off. He tried to think about what was personal to a Goa'uld and what it would feel like to have that popping up in his head, but he couldn't quite manage it and probably didn't want to know, anyway. A snake. "I guess...okay, then."
"I wasn't really sure until today," she went on, "when I kept thinking the word 'kalach' without being able to remember what it meant. From now on, I'll make sure I tell you or the general anything useful that I remember, sir."
Jack opened his mouth, then shut it when he had nothing to say, because this was pretty weird, even for them. "Okay," he finally said again. "You do that."
It only took a few minutes of silence before Daniel spoke up. "Jack, we're going back tomorrow afternoon, right?"
"Barring more unexpected discoveries, yeah. Why?" Daniel glanced at the backpack he was carrying around. "Daniel," Jack said, exasperated. "There's a Stargate missing."
"Well, I'm not going to be any help finding it," Daniel pointed out.
"Neither am I, not from here," Carter said, adding hopefully, "They've been testing the maximal explosive potential of minute amounts of naquadah in combination of various other elements common to Earth, after what we learned about potassium thanks to Cassandra."
"Oh, well, if they're blowing things up," Jack said, looking askance at them both.
"We can do little from our current location," Teal'c pointed out. "It will be some time before Colonel Makepeace and his team arrive at the site to apprehend the criminals."
Jack scowled at him. Et tu, Teal'c?
"Fine," he conceded. "Teal'c, go with Carter. Daniel--" Actually, Daniel was probably heading back to talk to the translators, while Carter was going to watch some explosions, so... "On second thought, I'll go with Carter; Teal'c can go with Daniel. SG-3 should report back to Hammond as soon as they're done, so meet back here in two hours."
"Oh, Jack, but...two hours?"
"Yes, Daniel," Jack said firmly. "We have priorities. I'm not kidding, Teal'c, you drag him back here by the scruff of his neck if he stalls."
"I will do no such thing, O'Neill," Teal'c said as Daniel's hand covered the back of his neck protectively.
Jack sighed. "1800," he repeated. "No later. That's an order."
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11 December 1998; Area 51; 1800 hrs
The naquadah experiments turned out to be a series of computer models with lists of numbers that represented explosions. Carter had been excited. Jack couldn't help but think he should have followed Daniel to look at the unidentified artifacts. Apparently, the things there were so exciting that he and Teal'c didn't get back to the conference room until nearly a quarter hour after Jack and Carter.
Jack was watching his phone and waiting for it to ring when the other two walked in and Daniel asked immediately, "Sam, did you know they have a Goa'uld long-range communication device here?" He cupped his hand to show he meant the hand-held version.
Carter nodded. "That'll be the one we picked up on Abydos, yeah. They're trying to get one to work without needing naquadah in the blood and make it stay within a more secure network."
"They said they haven't been able to, so far," he said, his intonation making it a question.
"Yeah," she answered. "You probably remember that the one we found was damaged. Apparently, there were some key components they weren't able to analyze. I don't think it could be a security risk if it doesn't work, so I haven't bothered to ask for it back."
"The Goa'uld possess certain similar technologies that can be used by humans and Jaffa as well as the Goa'uld," Teal'c said.
"I'd love to have one of those, but unfortunately, we have to make do with adjusting what we have," she said. "We haven't gotten our hands on one of the ones that don't require naquadah. Those communication devices don't exactly grow on trees out there in the galaxy."
"That is correct, Captain Carter," Teal'c agreed. "They are, in fact, made by Goa'uld engineers."
The phone rang, and Jack's attention was diverted to General Hammond.
"I have news about the Stargate," Hammond started, "and you're not going to like it, Jack."
Jack sighed. "Why doesn't that surprise me," he said, then settled in to listen.
By the time he hung up with the general, everyone else's eyes were fixed on him, too. He shook his head. "No cigar."
"It wasn't there?" Carter asked, alarmed.
"Oh, the Stargate was there, and so was the DHD. They're both being shipped back to the SGC where Hammond can have them sealed up for good and keep an eye on them himself. But we didn't get the people who've been using them."
"Do we know who they were, sir, or where they went?"
"No," Jack said. "SG-3 got there while the 'gate was being used, but whoever they were, they left through the Stargate. Makepeace tried to see the address they dialed on the DHD, but by the time he got there, it was too late to catch sight of the symbols. He has no idea where they escaped to."
"And no monitoring equipment was left behind? No records or...or artifacts of any kind?"
"Nothing, not even transport trucks. And you know what that means."
Carter nodded. "They weren't operating out of there, except for the Stargate," she explained when Daniel looked confused. "Whatever technology they've picked up might have been stored off-world, even. They were probably just agents for whoever's really running the show, and we have no idea who, or where."
"Oh, I'll bet someone has an idea," Jack said darkly, "and, conveniently, he'll be medically incompetent for questioning for who knows how long."
"Jack," Daniel said, annoyed, "why do you keep-- It's not like Colonel Maybourne wanted this. He couldn't have known what the sarcophagus would do to him."
Annoyed as well, Jack replied, "Why have you been defending him? It was a stupid thing to do, and I thought you didn't like the guy."
"I'm not defending him! I just don't think it's right to accuse him of something when we don't have proof that he did anything wrong, and he can't defend himself. Especially when Janet thought he might be dying."
"I'm just saying," Jack said. "What kind of idiot climbs into an Goa'uld healing box over and over when he's perfectly healthy?"
There was a pause, and he could tell he'd made a mistake somewhere, because Daniel was staring at him with an expression that was a cross between angry and stricken, but had no idea what he'd said wrong. Carter and Teal'c were playing it safe with wary silence, so there was no help from that quarter. Then...
"I considered it," Daniel muttered, almost but not quite defiant enough to hide more than a hint of embarrassment. "On Klorel's hatak, after Master Bra'tac revived me."
That part, Jack hadn't known. Kind of wished he didn't, actually, because what he could imagine of what actually had happened was bad enough. "But you didn't," Jack reminded him. And that was a very good thing, because Jack wasn't sure what he'd have said or done if it had been Daniel screaming at doctors and strapped to a bed before passing out in the infirmary with half his organs shutting down.
Holy crap--he'd been tempted, Jack realized with a chill, when they'd seen the sarcophagus the day before. Daniel hadn't been interested in the symbols carved into the box; he'd been thinking about crawling in.
"Why?" Jack asked. Getting hooked on medication when the body was still in the process of healing--that, he could understand, if not exactly forgive, and you were supposed to stop afterward, you fought what it was doing to your body. Being completely healthy and diving in for another dose, on the other hand... He would never understand the draw of having alien--alien, for crying out loud--technology screwing with his body more than he needed. Screwing with his head, going by what Carter thought it was doing to Maybourne.
Daniel reddened slightly and crossed his arms. "It's supposed to heal. There was no reason to think it would do something else. And it feels...like...a good thing. Colonel Maybourne didn't know what the sarcophagus would do to him, and it's not like he had a choice the first time he was put in."
"He had a choice the second time," Jack said. "And the time after that."
"I just think we should wait until he's better before we start casting aspersions. You can't condemn someone for not being mistrustful of everything; the sarcophagus doesn't seem like it would do anything bad."
"I'll bet it doesn't," Jack muttered, remembering a briefly giddy Daniel following that experience. "Anything that good has got to have a downside."
"What? No, it doesn't," Daniel said, sounding honestly bewildered by the remark. "There's no reason to believe the worst of everything."
"Ah--sarcophagus?"
"That's just one example! Why isn't it possible that there's something with only good consequences?"
Jack had the odd feeling that they weren't talking about the sarcophagus anymore. "Because things like that don't happen."
"You mean you haven't seen something like that happen," Daniel said.
"Because--! Look, the better something is, the more you have to think about what its flipside might be." The better something seemed, the easier it was to be lulled into thinking it was fine, and that it couldn't possibly hurt, and so, hey, why shouldn't we just jump in headfirst again and again, right?
"You won't even admit the possibility that there might be something in the universe you haven't experienced that might be totally--"
"No, Daniel, I'm not going to think like that! Because that's the difference between 'careful' or 'killed' out there."
"What about a being made of energy who saves us from an army of Jaffa trying to kill us?" Daniel said in a low voice. "If you had been anymore more 'careful' about Oma Desala, you might have been both careful and killed."
Hello. Left field.
"Whoa. Whoa, what?" Jack said, completely blindsided, wondering where that had come from and just how long Daniel had been stopping himself from saying it. Weeks, apparently. "Are you talking about the Oma Desala who was willing to fry all of us if we didn't do what she wanted? The one who made you think--" He stopped himself before something he'd really regret. If Daniel heard Shifu's unspoken name anyway--and of course he'd heard it; how could he not?--he didn't say anything. "Where did that come from, anyway?"
Daniel held his gaze but deflated slightly. "Never mind."
"Never mind?" If Daniel had a problem with the decisions Jack had made on that trip...well, he'd picked a great time to start picking at it. "Daniel, what the hell?"
"Never mind!"
Carter cut in, sounding as if she were trying to stave off something that might turn louder and uglier when they really didn't need any more problems while they were here. "Anything is possible, even if it's outside our range of experience," she offered pragmatically, almost anxiously, "but, in a way, nothing is completely without negative consequences, because what counts as good or bad inherently depends on the point of view."
"Exactly," Jack said, even though he knew that wasn't what they were arguing about at all. There was a reason he hated these philosophical debate games. Philosophy was fine in a book; in real life, it just turned everything inside out until it didn't resemble reality anymore.
Sure enough, Daniel shook his head, glowering. "That's not the point."
"Then what is your point?"
"I don't know, Jack."
"If this is about Oma Desala--"
"It's not...just...it's not that."
"Daniel--"
"I. Don't. Know, all right?"
Jack threw up his hands. "Would you just tell me what's going on?"
This time, Daniel slumped into a chair with a dejected sigh, pulling off his glasses, and Jack believed him when he repeated quietly, "I don't know."
The door opened, cutting him off. Dr. Fraiser entered, asking, "Am I interrupting something, sir?" Carter looked between them warily but was back to silent mode.
"Nope," Jack said, tearing his gaze away to look at the doctor. "Found the second Stargate, lost the people using it."
"All...all right," she said, looking surprised for a moment before continuing. "I just thought you'd want to know that Colonel Maybourne will make it, in all probability, although he'll need continuing medical care following this. How long it'll take him to get through the withdrawal, and whether he'll come out of it the same, is another matter. His position here will be reassigned to someone else until he's deemed fit to return to the job."
"If he's ever deemed fit," Jack pointed out.
"Jack..." Daniel started.
"Yes, sir," Fraiser agreed. "If he ever is."
Daniel shut up.
"We're going to need to--" Jack started.
"And there'll be no one trying to question him until then," she added.
Jack shut up, too.
"Did you find out anything else about what they were doing with the sarcophagus?" Carter asked.
"Exactly what they said they were doing," Fraiser said, shaking her head, "although testing it obviously wasn't as simple as they thought. Apparently, there were complications when Colonel Maybourne was first revived after Hathor, because his body was, essentially, still looking for the symbiote that had been keeping him alive over the previous day or two."
Carter was nodding thoughtfully. "He'd already started to undergo the genetic mutations that would cause him to be able to support a larval Goa'uld."
"That's what it looks like. DNA analysis shows that he's back to normal, but their data also show that it took a few tries to get there. By the time he was completely healed, the beginnings of a powerful addiction were probably already there. In the beginning, the doctors may have mistaken that for persistent problems due to the mutations, but afterward...well, the colonel was in charge of research on the sarcophagus, and there are plenty of people here who are very loyal to him."
"We should make sure it stays somewhere secure," Jack said. "No access, period, except in the case of death. Or permanent injury."
"I agree," Fraiser said. "I'll recommend that we ask SGC personnel their preferences on sarcophagus use in those circumstances. There are still questions of possible further abuse of the sarcophagus, by either us or them. To resolve that, perhaps we could keep it locked up here at Area 51, but with access granted only by the commanding officer of the SGC."
"That's probably a good idea," Carter said.
And then it was awkward and quiet again.
"Hammond says we can stick around until tomorrow," Jack said finally. "Everyone go talk to the researchers, like we've been planning on doing from the start. But after that, we're going back home." He was getting sick of this place.
Daniel gave him one more glance. For a moment, Jack thought he was about to speak, but then he stood and followed Fraiser out of the room instead before Jack could catch up to him.
From the next chapter (" Winter Solstice"):
Daniel sat with his back to the bulls in the fresco. "I miss my brother, too," he admitted quietly, not sure whether he meant Skaara or Shifu, but the ache sharpened and widened until he couldn't meet Sam's eyes. He reminded himself that he'd survived losing Skaara once, and Sha'uri and his parents, and that surely the events of the last few months would sink into him and settle into his bones, too, and it would be just a part of life.