Diplomacy (18/27)
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
XXXXX
Hosts, Part I
XXXXX
26 January 1999; SGC, Earth; 0800 hrs
Daniel was waiting outside Jack's office when Jack walked into work that morning. Not reading or even looking bored, he stood waiting with his coffee, warming his hands around the commissary-issue disposable cup. His foot was tapping slightly, jittery in the way of someone who was running on caffeine, which was strange enough on its own, because Daniel didn't like coffee enough (yet, though at this rate, he might be heading there) to drink that much of the stuff unless he was exhausted and no one was there to make him go to sleep. Alarms went off in Jack's head.
"Hello," Jack said, his eyes flicking to the end of the hall as if that would tell him what was wrong. "Back from the planet, I see. I didn't think SG-7 was getting back until today, or I would've waited for you."
"I got back with them really late last night," Daniel said, draining the cup in his hand.
"How was the trip?"
A shrug. "A lot of textual data--Ancient. Still no living Ancients. As we expected."
"Good." When nothing further seemed forthcoming, he asked, "What're you doing here?"
"Sam came to the archaeology office to ask something last night," Daniel said immediately, like he'd been waiting to say it for a while. He started walking, clearly expecting Jack to go along with him. "Jack, we're supposed to meet them." With no clue what was going on, Jack was forced to follow him and hope there was more explanation coming.
Jack took a minute to wonder when this had happened, but considering that Daniel had apparently gotten back from a planet with SG-7 late at night, not to mention the coffee thing, he had probably been up for a while with 'gate-lag. Besides, Carter pulled all-nighters more often than most people pulled mission rotation, so... "What were you two doing in the archaeology office in the middle of the night, instead of sleeping like normal people?"
"Sam had fallen asleep at her desk"--which did not count as sleeping like a normal person--"and had a dream. She thinks it was something important."
"A dream?" Why was it that when Jack wanted Daniel to say things concisely, he wouldn't shut up, but it was like pulling teeth whenever something interesting was happening? "I'm going to need a little more than that, Daniel."
"What? Oh, um...she wanted to know if the word 'lantash' meant anything in Goa'uld, because it was in her dream. It's not something I've ever seen or heard, but she's sure it was a real memory from Jolinar. She went to Janet to ask to be monitored while she slept to see if there was a difference in...something, brainwaves, I don't know...and to see if she could remember the rest of the memory, and she just woke up about"--he leaned abruptly into an office as they passed to check a startled Major Coburn's clock--"twenty minutes ago."
"Whoa, whoa," Jack said, holding out an arm to stop Daniel. "What?"
Daniel backpedaled and huffed impatiently. "Jack, I just told you--"
"Just...Okay, wait. Carter had another vision? About the rebel Goa'uld?"
"I suppose so; I don't know what it was about. That's what I was supposed to bring you to the briefing room to find out."
"We need to teach you how to give a report in logical order." Jack took up the lead toward the briefing room. "Someone could've just called me there as soon as I got in."
Daniel shrugged. "Like I said, Sam just woke up. She wanted a few minutes. We figured you would get here soon, anyway, and it would be easier if I explained it on the way so she didn't have to go through the whole thing all over again."
All things considered, Jack was almost surprised to see Carter so composed at the briefing room table. She was asking Teal'c something, while Hammond simply seemed to be waiting.
"General," Jack greeted as he walked in. "Everyone. I heard about the...dream thing."
Daniel hesitated at the staircase, but when the general nodded, he took a seat as well. He and Rothman had both started joining in at briefings that involved some relevant bit of culture or language, especially with explorations to new planets. Jack had to admit that it had come in handy in the past, which was probably why the general continued to let them except when they were stepping on another cultural specialist's toes.
"It wasn't just a dream, sir," Carter said, looking more tired now that he was close enough to see. "As I've stated before, it was a memory. I saw Jolinar--and the other Tok'ra--escaping from something or someone. I think they were under attack, and they were going to some other planet."
"And you believe that this was a real memory," Hammond said, as if to confirm.
"Yes, sir. I'm absolutely certain that it was."
Jack felt his eyebrows twitch upward. Confident as they had to be to make the kind of decisions they had to, 'absolutely certain' wasn't common, not for someone as careful as Carter was.
"But they're not your memories, Captain?" the general said.
"When a Goa'uld infests its host," Teal'c said, "their minds intermingle and become as one."
They hadn't known that at all from the start, back when all they knew was what Teal'c had been told, that a host was destroyed when a god took over its body, but they'd learned enough over the years to realize that wasn't true. "What about when you asked Daniel about that word?" Jack asked. "He said he's never heard of a...lanyard... What was it again?"
"Lantash," Teal'c supplied. "I also have not heard that word."
Carter hesitated, then shook her head helplessly. "I don't know what to tell you, sir. Everyone in the dream was speaking in Goa'uld." (Makes sense, Jack thought, since they're Goa'ulds.) "It was as if...I understood what was happening, but when I woke up, I only remembered a few words, and they don't mean anything to me anymore."
"Then this could be something you dreamt up," Jack pointed out. When she gave him an indignant look, he amended, "Not on purpose, obviously. I'm not... But it could be...a dream. Things don't always make sense in dreams. That's all I'm saying."
"It...sounds Goa'uld," Daniel offered. "It could be the name of a person or a place, even a codeword; we might not recognize that."
Feeling a little bit like a traitor to his teammate--but Goa'ulds and visions were two things he wasn't about to trust without good reason--Jack started to say, "If we don't have anything really solid to go on, maybe we have to consider--"
"It is possible, O'Neill," Teal'c interrupted. "According to Jaffa legend, the Tok'ra have many methods and technologies that the System Lords have never discovered, particularly those that concern their ability to conceal themselves. Perhaps this is one of those."
"And, sir...there's one way to find out whether or not it's a real memory," Carter said, sliding a notepad toward him. "I saw the address of their destination planet. With the number of possible permutations of Stargate glyphs, the probability that I would hallucinate a working address by random chance is negligible."
"So if we can get a lock, your dream is probably true," Jack summarized. "But even if it's totally valid...Carter, they're Goa'uld."
"But they call themselves the Tok'ra," Daniel said before she could. "Their very name says that they're against the System Lords."
"Supposedly," Hammond said.
"Supposedly, yes, sir, according to Jaffa legend, and according to what Jolinar said to me and Cassandra in the Academy hospital."
"Not just supposedly," Carter insisted. "Definitely. Trust me, sir. These are the good Goa'uld."
Hearing something like that about a Goa'uld made Jack want to shake someone until the loose screw fell out. He could kind of understand the others' enthusiasm for the idea. Teal'c was a realistic guy, but rebel Jaffa seemed to put a lot of stock in their ancient forbidden legends. Daniel didn't like Goa'uld who took hosts in general, but he still hadn't lost that thing where he thought anything against the Goa'uld System Lords was good on principle.
Carter, though...of all of them, she was uniquely qualified to judge the character of a Tok'ra. Jack still just wasn't completely sure whether she was uniquely the best- or worst-qualified.
As if she saw his uncertainty, Carter pressed, "The Stargate coordinates I saw are the only lead we have to find the Tok'ra. We should check it out before they move on, if they haven't already done so. Colonel, I know you're skeptical about these things, but I am confident that I am right on this one."
"Colonel?" Hammond asked. "If you agree, I'm ready to send SG-1 there."
Jack met Carter's earnest gaze and finally nodded. "It's worth checking out." She relaxed slightly and nodded thanks to him.
"Is, uh...anyone else going along?" Daniel asked, clearing meaning himself.
"No," Jack said immediately. "If these Goa'uld are as paranoid as Carter and Teal'c think they are, there's no guarantee that they won't engage us when we arrive." Jack wasn't going to guarantee that he wouldn't shoot anyone, either.
"But what if you need a--"
"A translator who speaks Goa'uld? Or an ancient Egyptian dialect?"
Daniel glanced at Teal'c, then nodded in resignation. There was a reason Daniel wasn't often assigned to assist SG-1.
"Communication won't be a problem," Carter said confidently. Jack raised his eyebrows at her, and she shook her head again. "I don't know how I know, but I'm sure of it." Fair enough--most of the Goa'uld they'd met so far spoke some dialect or other of English, and any Tok'ra they met were likely to do the same.
Hammond nodded. "All right. This one will be for SG-1 alone. SG-3 will be ready to provide backup if you need it. Be ready to leave in an hour. You're dismissed."
As they stood and began to leave, Jack heard Hammond add to Daniel, "Mr. Jackson, the scientists would like an extra pair of eyes in the engineering lab on 22. Dr. Rothman left early yesterday after returning from his last mission with SG-2."
"Early?" Daniel said, sounding surprised. "That's odd." Jack remembered seeing Rothman leave the day before, before Daniel had returned himself, but only because the man had been quieter than usual. He thought Rothman was odd in general, though, so he hadn't asked any questions.
"Well, they're studying the device that SG-2 brought back along with Machello."
"With...whom?" Daniel said.
"Machello," the general repeated. "That's the name of the inhabitant they found on the planet. Someone will explain it to you upstairs."
"Yes, sir. Good luck with the Tok'ra," Daniel said to the rest of them, then disappeared in the direction of the elevator with a final wave.
"One hour, people," Jack repeated to his team when Hammond had left.
Fifty-five minutes later, Jack stood in the embarkation room with Teal'c, waiting for Carter to finish whatever last-minute thing she was doing. "So, Teal'c," he said, checking his watch and trying not to show his apprehension, "you got a good feeling about these Tok'ra guys?"
Teal'c gave him one of those long looks that no longer fazed him--much--and intoned, "My feelings are indeed excellent on this matter."
"Ah...right," Jack said, looking suspiciously at Teal'c. It was hard to tell when the Jaffa was actually mistaken about idioms and when he was just messing with them.
Jack was saved from thinking of the best way to correct the phrasing by Carter's entrance. "Thanks for waiting, sir."
"Just in time," he answered. "Everyone here? General," he called in the direction of control room, "we're ready."
XXXXX
26 January 1999; SGC, Earth; 1030 hrs
Two hours later, Daniel started up the staircase to the briefing room."...Oh no," he heard, and he hurried toward General Hammond's familiar drawl just in time to hear, "I'll be right there, Jacob."
"General?" Daniel asked as the man hung up the phone. "I was called down."
The general nodded. "It's about Machello. Report to the infirmary; Major Ferretti, Captain Griff, and Dr. Fraiser will explain what he's been telling us. I need to take care of something off-base."
Daniel blinked. "Okay." Whatever this was about, maybe it would be good--if Machello was going to be all right, maybe he could help them decipher that odd language Daniel couldn't quite make out on the tablet SG-2 had brought back.
Ferretti and Griff were the last two members left on SG-2, now that Warren had joined SG-3 and Casey SG-10. Robert had provided them their minimum third member for this trip, but Daniel suspected they would see some reorganization, and soon. When he arrived in the infirmary, both of them were waiting, and Janet was standing next to the elderly man in the bed--Machello--who was now awake.
"Hi," Daniel said. "What's going on?"
"Daniel," Machello croaked.
"...Hi," he said again, uncertainly.
"How did you know his name?" Ferretti asked the man sharply, making Daniel realize belatedly that he should have wondered that himself. "None of us mentioned it."
"As I've been trying to tell you," Machello replied, his words slow and labored, "I am not Machello. I am Robert Rothman."
"Uh," Daniel said. "You what?"
"I'm Robert," Machello insisted.
"You don't look like him," Daniel said warily, glancing at the others to make sure he wasn't the only one who found this strange. "Are you...uh, are you sure?"
Machello huffed exasperatedly, then coughed.
"He knows a lot about Dr. Rothman," Janet offered. "Private things in his medical record."
"Ask me anything," Machello said. "Ask me something only I would know."
Ferretti nodded at Daniel. "Figured you know him better than any of us, so..."
"Is this a joke?" Daniel asked, but no one seemed to be in the mood for laughing. "Okay. Um...where did you used to work? No, wait, how did I get to be your assistant?" he added, since others might easily know the first part. Not aliens, obviously, but...well. It was the principle.
"The Oriental Institute in Chicago," the old man said promptly, then paused, as if to catch his breath, before saying, "And you missed something in the translation of that wall from Abydos."
"No, I didn't," Daniel said automatically. "You agreed, too--it was right in that context. You didn't even know it was from Abydos."
"Well, excuse me for not being an alien," Machello (Robert?) retorted irritably. "It was that... 'netjer, natay' thing."
Daniel opened his mouth to answer, only to remember that he was arguing with an old man, not Robert, except that, well, apparently it was Robert, who only looked like an old man. "I take it that's correct?" Janet asked. "And there's no way anyone else could have known that?"
"Finally," Robert muttered through Machello's lips.
"Yes, it's correct," Daniel said, peering closer at the old man's face as if it might tell him something. "And no one else would have known that."
"Wait a minute," Griff said, holding up a hand. "You're telling me that...that is Dr. Rothman?"
"When we touched the machine," Robert said, "it must have switched us somehow. Our minds or whatever."
"The machine?" Daniel asked.
"It was this thing we found on Machello's planet," Ferretti said. "You know that tablet we brought back? We think they're instructions or research notes about the devices on the planet."
"That makes sense--I can access various schematics on it. Is this...this is all possible, yes?"
Janet shook her head when they turned to her. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you that I've never dealt with something like this. I can consult with some neurologists, but I'm not sure they'll be able to help."
"Uh, hold on," Daniel added, not completely able to take his eyes away from Machello's face. "General Hammond said that Robert left early yesterday, and obviously, he's not here today. But if they were switched, and Robert's mind is in Machello's...body, then who left yesterday?"
"Damn," Janet swore uncharacteristically. "I should have known something was wrong when he barely said a word during his checkup. He must have picked up just enough of the language to pass." She sighed. "I thought he was just tired."
"We all should've paid more attention, Doc," Ferretti said. "But right now, where's the general?"
"He's...out," Janet said. "Personal matters. Colonel Makepeace is in command until he or Colonel O'Neill returns."
"We really need to get Dr. Rothman, or whoever got sent home last night."
"And find a way to switch us back," Robert said. "'Left early.' The heck would I do that?"
"About switching you back..." Daniel said, wincing.
Robert squinted one rheumy eye at him. "Daniel..."
"I've been working on the language that Machello used to record data. It's Greek or Latin in form, but I don't recognize the sentence structure, or anything else about its grammar. It's like a completely new language, or at least one that no one here has seen before, so if it's instructions...I have no idea what it says."
"Don't bother," Griff said dismissively. "Let's just go back to the planet, bring the switcher machine back, and get one of the scientists to put it in reverse. How hard could it be?"
"Perhaps I should go with you to see if there's anything there that I can actually read," Daniel said, with an apologetic look at Robert, who squinted at him and nodded slowly. "There must be more of the planet to explore than just that lab you found, anyway, so maybe someone else there could help us."
"Doc, you'll keep an eye on Dr. Rothman?" Ferretti directed toward Janet, who nodded. "All right, boys, with me."
Colonel Makepeace was quick to alert local law enforcement to look for a Robert Rothman wandering around Colorado Springs. He was less enthusiastic about sending SG-2 back to Machello's planet without the general there to authorize it, especially when Daniel asked to go along with them.
"Fine," he finally ground out. "But you go in MOPP 4. Consider that thing hazardous, and if you guys lose another civilian, I will kick your asses myself even before the general gets back. And that includes yours, Jackson."
"Yes, sir," they agreed. Daniel didn't bother to mention that if he got lost, there was no way Makepeace could kick any part of him at all, and then he found himself being hustled into the ready room. He was still trying to figure out how to pull on the bulky protective gear when Griff pushed the mask unceremoniously onto his head for him, and he spent a moment wondering frantically how long he was supposed to hold his breath before feeling like an idiot when he realized he could breathe just fine through the filter.
When the wormhole to Machello's planet was established, Colonel Makepeace's voice came over the speaker. "Don't twiddle your thumbs, SG-2. I'll give you three hours to look around for people on that planet to help. You'd better have everything you need by then."
XXXXX
General Hammond was back on base when they returned, Machello's invention in tow. "General," Griff said nervously, putting down the heavy crate of gathered devices he'd been carrying and pulling off his mask. Daniel let go of the handles of the machine that had started it all and followed suit, looking over it at Ferretti, who was letting go of the other side. "Sir, uh. The planet doesn't seem to be populated, but we...may...have another problem."
"That seems to be the order of the day," the general answered tiredly. "Major Ferretti--"
"General?" Daniel heard his own voice say, and closed his eyes. Well, not his own eyes, but...
The general paused and looked harder at them. "Mr. Jackson?"
"Yes, sir?" Daniel said, wincing when Ferretti's voice came out. He tried nervously to push his glasses higher.
"I don't wear glasses, Jackson," Ferretti snapped, scowling at him through Daniel's eyes.
"I know," Daniel said, past the initial panic now and beginning to notice the differences. There was the reduced field of vision in Ferretti's left eye from his injury over a year ago, a strong temptation to trip over legs muscled differently from his own, and the odd realization that, while he often felt like the smallest person on any team, he (well, Ferretti) was actually physically the shortest, which meant he (Daniel) usually wasn't.
Pronouns were going to be a problem until they fixed this. Proper nouns, too.
"How do you see through your damn hair?" Ferretti muttered, irritably pushing Daniel's fringe out of his face and storming down the ramp, stumbling but not falling as he reached the bottom. "General, we can explain, but--"
"I think I get the idea," General Hammond sighed. "Get that device into one of the labs, gentlemen." He looked at the crate of artifacts that Griff was picking up and added, "All of the devices. Report to the briefing room as soon as you're done."
"No touching this time," Ferretti said to Daniel.
"We were picking it up! Obviously, you touched it, too, or we wouldn't have switched at all," Daniel retorted to his own face, wishing selfishly for a moment that the machine had been heavier, so that Griff, who was stronger, would have volunteered to carry half of it instead of him. "And we still have to take it upstairs. Maybe it will switch us back if we both hold it again."
"Fine. Griff, you grab the crate of stuff and stay away from this thing," Ferretti said as they picked it up again. When nothing happened a moment later with the exception of an uncomfortable shock to them both, he added, "Man, I really hope Captain Carter can fix this."
Daniel shook his head, shuffling into the elevator before dropping the machine again. Ferretti barely waited for Griff to squeeze in, keeping a space between himself and Machello's switching machine, before punching the floor where Dr. Lee's lab was. "Not this time, Major. SG-1 is off-world, trying to contact a rebel faction of Goa'uld, so Sam's not here."
Griff gave both of them a highly disturbed look but didn't comment. Daniel looked curiously at Ferretti and wondered if that was really what his face looked like when he was annoyed.
The elevator stopped. Daniel and Ferretti picked up opposite ends of the device, flinching at the jolt again.
Just as the doors opened, however, two people barreled into them. Griff moved to stop them from running into the machine, but their momentum made him stumble back into the device himself before he could catch his balance. Daniel and Ferretti released the handles as quickly as possible, Griff barking, "Hey, watch it--alien device coming through!"
"Sorry," one of the newcomers said breathlessly. "Sergeant Siler's got an electrical burn, and we were...what is that?"
"Whoa," Daniel's voice said. "Holy crap, Jackson, your eyes suck."
"What?" Griff snapped, then did a double-take. "Oh. Shit. Daniel?"
"I'm here," Daniel said, still in Ferretti's body. "Are you Griff?"
"No, I'm Griff," Daniel's voice answered instead as he rubbed his eyes. "Sir?"
"Right here. Dammit, I didn't let go fast enough. Okay," Ferretti said with Griff's voice, "so Griff and I just switched. Daniel, step back." When no one moved, he clarified impatiently, "The one with Daniel's brain."
Daniel scrunched Ferretti's body into the corner, letting Ferretti-who-looked-like-Griff and Griff-who-looked-like-Daniel take control of the handles. "Did it switch you back?" he asked them hopefully.
"Nope," Ferretti said, then hauled the machine out. "Everyone stay the hell out of the way this time. You get the crate, Daniel. We're out of here."
Daniel looked back as they moved toward Dr. Lee's lab, just in time to see that the scientist who'd bumped Griff had been distracted from the burn on Siler's arm and was blinking bemusedly at them with his mouth open, while Siler sighed and went to find the infirmary on his own. Daniel turned back and hurried after the others.
Any conversation among them was limited; it was odd enough walking around in the wrong body without trying to interact with people also in the wrong bodies. Daniel carefully didn't talk and tried not to trip over Ferretti's feet as they reported to the briefing room.
He wondered for a moment whether Goa'uld symbiotes had to adjust to their hosts' bodies at first, but maybe it was different when the host's mind was still present. Jolinar, he remembered far too well, had had all of Sam's easy grace, even in those first few hours, but that was probably because the Tok'ra symbiote had had access to Sam's thoughts as well as control of her body.
Daniel frowned at the memory and tried not to think about the fact that SG-1 was trying to ally Earth with the Tok'ra right then.
General Hammond had apparently heard Janet's explanation of what had happened to Robert and Machello and had pieced together what had happened when they'd tried to bring the machine back from the planet. "Major Ferretti..." he started, looking at Daniel's face.
"Actually, sir, I'm Captain Griff," Griff said, standing at attention with Daniel's hands behind his back.
"There was an accident on the elevator, sir," Ferretti added, carefully folding Griff's taller form into a chair.
Daniel ducked Ferretti's head and tucked his hands into his pockets when the general's gaze came his way.
"You people..." the general sighed, rubbing his forehead. "The good news is that someone carrying Dr. Rothman's ID has been spotted in a local diner, of all places. The police seem to think he's a confused foreigner because he speaks English poorly."
"Machello, then," Ferretti said.
"He'll be apprehended as soon as our people can get to him. In the meantime," the general said, his voice sharpening, "I want Dr. Rothman's consciousness out of a dying man's body by whatever means necessary. Major, I'm assuming from your current situation that you don't know how to reverse the process."
"No, sir, not yet," Ferretti confirmed. "It only seems to work once."
"Not exactly," Daniel corrected. "Major Ferretti has switched twice. Well," he amended, "either that, or I have switched twice. It's hard to tell which."
General Hammond gave him an impatient look.
"I mean that if something is limiting the switching process, we don't know if it's the mind or the body. Major Ferretti's mind has been switched twice, and my, uh, body has had two minds switched into it. Maybe if we can figure out why it worked twice for him, or for me, then...uh...I don't know, actually."
"Or one of the scientists might be able to figure out how it works, period," Griff pointed out.
"What about the other devices you brought back?" the general asked.
"I can't read the instructions," Daniel said. "They're the same writing system as everything else, but the language is different."
"We may not have a lot of time here," the general warned. "Machello's body is not only very old but also in grave condition. Dr. Fraiser isn't sure how long she can keep him alive."
Daniel blinked. "And if he dies before we can switch Robert back into his own body, does that mean..."
"Yes."
"We'll go up to lab and see what we can do to help, then," Ferretti said. "We can hand the device with the notes over to Linguistics, see if someone can read it."
"Good," General Hammond agreed, standing. "Go ahead, and don't let anyone else get affected by this machine. As long as you're...not yourselves, you're banned from any projects besides solving this one, so I suggest you get it sorted out."
Daniel lingered, though, after Ferretti and Griff had left the room. "Sir, I was wondering...SG-1...?"
"No word yet," the general told him, anticipating his question. "There are some complications--business at home," he added when Daniel's eyes widened in alarm. "Captain Carter should be on her way back, and Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c will continue to the Tok'ra. Now," the general finished, "let them do their jobs, son. You need to be up in Dr. Lee's lab."
"Yes, sir," he said automatically, forcing himself to focus by thinking deliberately of Robert in Machello's weakening body, and turned to follow the others down the hallway.
Dr. Lee had had the device placed on a wheeled platform, so only one person would have to touch it at a time if they needed to move it somewhere else. They stood watching him impatiently as he poked and prodded the device--for safety's sake, he said, in case too much exposure could be damaging or do something even worse.
"You were wearing overgarments when Daniel and Major Ferretti switched?" Dr. Lee asked.
"Yeah," Ferretti confirmed. "Full protection, with extra insulators between the gloves and the device when we picked it up."
Dr. Lee shook his head. "I can't understand it. There's definitely an electrical discharge, but it shouldn't have gotten through so much insulation, not without damage to the material, at least. There's something else about this device besides just electricity."
An off-world activation made them all jump and head out the door, until they remembered that none of them was allowed to do anything, anyway.
Ferretti nearly walked into the door on the way back in, unused to Griff's larger frame. Griff muttered something about clumsy teenaged limbs and carefully stayed against the wall. Daniel would have protested if he hadn't just misjudged the distance to a chair and sat down gracelessly, apologizing silently to Ferretti for bruising his body.
While they waited for Dr. Lee, Daniel idly picked up the metal ID tags hanging around his--well, Ferretti's--neck and looked at them curiously. "What's the difference between 'A NEG' and 'A POS?'" he asked.
Rolling Griff's eyes, Ferretti said, "An 'A POS' person won't die if he gets 'A NEG' blood. And you'd better not be memorizing my social security number, kid."
"I'm not," he said, but dropped the tags anyway. Dr. Lee was still reading something off his voltmeter, so Daniel closed one eye and squinted out into the hallway. "Hey, wow, I--you--can see the name on that door all the way over--"
"Daniel," Ferretti interrupted exasperatedly, looking a little uncomfortable, "can you try to find my body a little less interesting?"
Griff snorted. Ferretti flushed and kicked himself hard in the shin.
"Hey," Griff complained. "Sir, that's my leg."
"Yeah," Ferretti said. "So everyone shut up."
Daniel opened both of Ferretti's eyes and tried to stop fidgeting.
Finally, Dr. Lee declared that, as far as he could tell, whatever charge it emitted through the handles wouldn't kill them, probably, with the caveat that there was obviously something that he couldn't tell about the machine. His only suggestion for reversal, however, was to try different configurations of holding the machine's handles and hope that it caused a second transfer.
"All right, Daniel, get over here and help me try this thing," Ferretti said, looking between him and Griff. "It's not gonna be your skin getting zapped if we can help it."
As they grabbed the handles, there was another small shock, but nothing happened. "Still the same," Daniel commented unnecessarily.
"Did you try it backwards before?" Dr. Lee asked. No one could remember which way it had been facing before, because it looked the same from both ends, so he switched places with Ferretti and tried again. And then it was something else, and something else...
"There aren't very many possible permutations of two people, two handles, and two sequences of touching the device," Daniel pointed out.
"Maybe it has to do with the people," Lee suggested.
"What could the difference possibly be?" Griff said. "We're all human."
"He's an alien," Ferretti said, pointing to the person who looked like Daniel, and then to the person who thought like Daniel, before dropping his finger for lack of a valid target.
Lee looked speculatively at Griff in Daniel's body, then shook his head. "The probability of such a significant genetic mutation in one generation is not great. Besides, the most common mutations I can think of would have taken place during meiosis or the subsequent fertilization, and as far as we know, the conception itself was a completely normal--"
"Yes," Daniel said loudly, feeling Ferretti's ears heat. "True. So."
"But it might be something less subtle than 'human versus not-human.' You know, tall versus short." When they all gave the engineer a disbelieving look, he amended, "Or something."
So Griff took Daniel's place at Machello's device, and they began the process again.
"What do you think the purpose of this device was?" Daniel asked as he watched.
"Who cares?" Ferretti said, shaking out Griff's hands as he was shocked yet again. "It switches people around. Maybe it's supposed to drive people insane, 'cause it's working."
"It's just...you said Machello told Robert that he invented all those things because he wanted to fight the Goa'uld. I don't see what good something like this would do."
"Good point; no idea," Griff said.
"You know," Dr. Lee said before anyone could offer an answer, "whatever's stopping the transference, it looks like it's not a question of the physical vessel, or even the consciousness itself. It could have to do with the pair of consciousnesses being transferred. It might only work once with each pair."
"But it would work anytime a new pair was available for switching," Daniel thought aloud.
Griff let go of the machine. "If that's right, then if we're not careful, soon everyone on this base will be playing musical chairs with everyone else's bodies."
Dr. Lee nodded thoughtfully. "Who hasn't switched with whom?"
"Me and Jackson," Griff said. "Let's try it."
XXXXX
"Here, this should work," Daniel said when he was finally back in his own body. He held up a pad of paper, where he and Dr. Lee had worked out a plausible order of transfers. "If we follow this sequence, everyone should end up in the right body with no pair of minds having to be transferred twice."
"Let's go, then," Ferretti said. He and Griff were still stuck in each other's bodies--apparently, they needed at least four people in the wrong bodies or they ran out of pairs to finish the process, but with Robert and Machello, there would be enough people to get everyone back in the right body soon enough. "Griff, let's get this thing downstairs; Daniel, check over that list on the way."
It didn't take long to get to the right floor, and Ferretti waved him ahead as they wheeled the device along carefully.
"We have it," Daniel said excitedly when he arrived in the infirmary, then stopped short just inside at Janet's stony face as she bent over Robert in the bed. "What's wrong?"
"They found Machello," Janet said. "He's in one of the holding cells right now."
"The holding cells," Daniel repeated. "Why?"
"He resisted arrest at first, and now he's being very uncooperative."
A little confused, Daniel pointed out, "He might not understand you completely when you talk to him; no one can pick up that much English so fast. I'm sure if we explain it..."
But maybe not. Why would he have left at all, in that case, knowing what his device must have done, without telling people here what was happening?
"Where's the general?" Daniel asked Janet as Griff and Ferretti pulled the device into the room.
"Out," Janet said.
"Again?"
"Something came up with the Tok'ra. His orders were to clear this up whatever way we can. Daniel, you and Dr. Rothman may have to explain this to Machello."
"Won't work," Robert spoke up.
"Why not?" Daniel asked him. "I thought you were able to talk to him earlier."
"It's not the language; he can understand our Latin well enough. But I already told him when they first brought him in, and he says 'no.'"
"That's why he's in the holding cell," Janet informed him grimly.
"He said what?" Daniel said, not really believing that someone might do what all the evidence seemed to be suggesting. They had to give the man a chance to explain, that was all. He would understand when they told him what their dilemma was. "Well, we need to talk to him--maybe he doesn't realize it can be fixed. Can we go see him?"
Ferretti turned to one of the SFs at the door and ordered instead, "Bring Machello here, under guard. We might as well," he added to the rest of them, "since the device is here, and so is Dr. Rothman. We'll need him here to get it fixed."
When boots began to thump toward them, Daniel turned and couldn't help gaping a little at the sight of his mentor's body walking toward them like...not like an old man, exactly. More like someone who bore the experience of years and expected others to recognize that. How had that not caught someone's attention? Arrogance and confidence weren't the same, and while Robert might carry some of the former, he rarely showed the latter, not the way this man did--this man who had stolen his body and was willing to...
Not yet. That was an assumption, an unsupported conclusion so far.
Once the man stopped in front of the hospital bed where Robert lay in Machello's body, Ferretti nodded to Daniel.
Focusing on Machello, Daniel took a breath and used the oldest form of Latin he knew, hoping it would be close enough to what had been spoken when Machello's people had split off from Earth. "Hello, Machello. My name is Daniel, and this is Robert. There must have been some misunderstanding. We need you to undo what you did to him."
For a moment, Machello didn't answer, and Daniel began to wonder if he should try again and maybe go back even more toward something closer to what they knew of Proto-Italic. Then Machello smiled very slightly. "There was no misunderstanding. I will not reverse the process."
The voice was the same, but the tone, even the accent and the inflection--they were all completely wrong. It was like when the Goa'uld had spoken with through Sam: her voice, her face, her body, but not her will.
Not that that had been a Goa'uld. A Tok'ra. Which was different. But not really. Well, that time with Jolinar had been an exception. Probably. Right?
But still, anyone who took over a body without consent...
"You did this, knowing he would die?" Daniel asked carefully.
"I did this," Machello countered calmly, "knowing that I would live."
To the others, Daniel said, "I think I might know why he built this machine. This way he could switch bodies whenever he wanted. Or maybe it was originally made to switch other people if their bodies were...oh, gods," he said as another horrifying thought struck him. "His technology was made for fighting the Goa'uld. He might have used this to transfer the mind of someone who had been taken by a Goa'uld into a fresh...a fresh body."
"But this isn't a unidirectional transfer," Dr. Lee said. "If someone is transferred out of a Goa'ulded body, someone else would be transferred in."
Daniel stared at Machello, wondering if he had a brother who had been taken by a Goa'uld, or perhaps a sister, or a lover, or a child.
"If that's the case, then that's...a terrible thought," Janet said, straightening in until she was standing almost at attention the way she did when she was angry or being very serious.
"Terrible," Daniel repeated hollowly, wondering whether he would do the same if Skaara were standing before him today, helpless to Klorel's whims. If Sha'uri were here, calling for her baby son while Amaunet controlled her body.
He wouldn't, of course. It was wrong. It was never right. At least, not unless...
No. No 'unless.' It was never right, and for that, what Machello had done was unforgivable, and that was all. That had to be all.
"There is no way to reverse the process," Machello said. "I made certain of that."
"Daniel, is he right?" Robert mumbled.
"He's wrong," Daniel said, and had the urge to laugh and tell Machello that they had figured it out--that they'd found a solution, without needing his instructions, without needing his help, and all they needed him to do was touch the device--but first, he had to know one thing. "Why would you do such a thing?"
"I am a hero to my people," Machello said. "For fifty years, I fought against the Goa'uld. I have suffered more than anyone should suffer in a lifetime. I sacrificed my life so that your people and those like you could continue to live in freedom from slavery to false gods. The least you could do was compensate me with another."
"You don't get to decide that your life is more important than this man's," Janet said incredulously.
"The knowledge that I hold is priceless," the man said, not waiting for Janet's words to be translated; the tone was clear enough. "With my help, your planet can be safe from the Goa'uld forever. Is that not worth more than the life of one man? Two billion of my people died rather than surrender me to the Goa'uld."
Daniel felt his face pale, even as he repeated the words in English.
"All right," Ferretti said. "I'm not sure this is the kind of help the general would welcome. Machines that help one person and screw over someone else in the process..."
In exchange for protecting the planet, Daniel thought. If, he amended quickly, Machello was telling the truth. And Robert would still be dead. They didn't do things like this. They wouldn't.
"You may be right, Major," Janet agreed, lifting her chin and staring hard at Machello.
"So what you're saying," Ferretti continued to Machello, flicking a look at Daniel until he started to translate, "is that you refuse to cooperate in returning our man to his own body."
Machello looked unperturbed. "As I already told you, even if I desired to do so, I cannot."
"We have a way," Daniel told him.
"Impossible. And even if you did...even if I could change it, I would not."
Looking worried, Dr. Lee said, "I don't know exactly how the device works, remember. There's the issue of conductance, and who gets affected, and there may be a, a...safeguard he has--I don't know if we can physically force him to participate if he resists."
Breaking his gaze, Daniel said, "A zat'nik'tel? He can't resist then."
"Daniel!" Janet rebuked, shocked.
"Hey," Robert added weakly, "that's my body."
"It won't kill him with one shot," Daniel pointed out. "Wh-what?" he added when he felt other stares on him.
"We can't just shoot him, Daniel," Janet said. "Deadly or not, we don't torture a prisoner to gain his cooperation."
Daniel faltered at hearing what his suggestion really meant. "But Robert's going to die," he said, because Machello had made himself the enemy first, hadn't he? "If this had happened in the middle of a battle, we would force him to undo this, you know we would, but it's different because we're safely on base? He's literally killing Robert. At what point is it called 'self-defense' instead?"
Ferretti looked uneasy but said, "He's got a point."
"We'll find a way," Janet said firmly. "There are lines we don't cross just because someone hurt us first." She added a pointed look in Machello's direction. "If we do, we're no better than the enemy. At least wait for the general before anyone decides to take a more drastic step."
Apparently, Machello knew the word zat'nik'tel and turned to him. "Is this what my sacrifice has won me? You people, who know the benefits of all my years of suffering under the Goa'uld, my years of torture in their hands...you wish to attack me as you would our enemy? With a weapon of our enemy?"
The words dissolved some of Daniel's uncertainty, and he glared back. "We are instructed to use a zat'nik'tel on the Goa'uld if there is a chance of saving the host. Perhaps this is such a case."
"I am not a Goa'uld," Machello hissed, taking a step forward and stopping only when an airman raised his gun in warning. "I hate the Goa'uld!"
The protest rang in Daniel's mind with horrible familiarity as he remembered Jolinar.
He leaned forward across the bed toward Machello and said, "The last one who said those words to me was a Goa'uld who hid in an innocent man's body. She let a world of innocent people be sacrificed so her enemy wouldn't find her, because she thought she was more important than they were. She took my friend's body by force, because her last host was dying. This is exactly the same!"
"I am not a Goa'uld," Machello repeated.
"No? What makes you any different?"
"If your friend is returned to this body, then you condemn me to death. How is that any different?" Machello parroted.
"It was his first," Daniel argued, trying not to flinch at the thought of condemning anyone to death. "We have the right to reclaim what is his and not yours."
"Those are your morals. The transfer occurred on my world. Your people entered without invitation. Why are your laws right and mine wrong?"
Daniel blinked. That hadn't occurred to him.
"What was that about?" Ferretti asked warily.
Straightening, Daniel said, "I was...I was telling him that what he's doing is no better than what the Goa'uld do."
Robert coughed once and drew in a long, wheezing breath. Daniel's gaze snapped to him, but Machello's body continued breathing. Janet took a few steps toward her patient, then looked up at the monitors. "Dr. Rothman?" she called gently. Robert groaned something but didn't open his eyes or make a move to do anything else.
Ferretti started for the doorway. "General Hammond said he wanted Dr. Rothman back by whatever means necessary," he said, "and right now, someone's trying to kill a consultant to my team. I'll go get a zat before it's too late for Dr. Rothman, unless someone wants to wrestle with the man."
"Major..." Janet started. Ferretti paused, hesitating, by the door.
"How can you do this?" Daniel asked again.
"Anyone would do the same," Machello said.
"No," Daniel denied, shaking his head. "We would not. We fight the Goa'uld; we do not become like them."
Machello raised his chin slightly, so that the agony of a life of war and fear and torture shone clear in Robert's eyes. "Such are the words of a naïve world that does not yet know the pain of generations upon generations lost to the enemy."
"Years from now, if the Goa'uld have not yet been defeated--"
Machello laughed, mocking and bitter all at once.
Clenching his hands into fists, Daniel continued, "If they have not been defeated, we will still believe the same."
"Are you certain of that?"
"I am!"
"You were not so certain a moment ago," Machello said. "Bring your zat'nik'tel, then. Who will you be when you have fought the Goa'uld as long as I have?"
Daniel reeled back a half-step and didn't know what to say.
"You know," Janet said, not looking away from Robert and the monitors, "maybe you're right. He's using Dr. Rothman the same way the Goa'uld use their hosts. Tell him that, Daniel."
"Machello," he started, mechanically, still thinking over the man's words and reminding himself of what the man had suffered and what crime he was committing now, "you have become a Goa'uld. My friend is only a host to you, and--"
Robert gasped. Wizened, cloudy eyes widened in sudden alarm, then slowly slid closed as his body slumped back into the hospital bed and slipped into unconsciousness.
"Dr. Rothman," Janet said, her fingers moving to his pulse and her eyes snapping to the monitors. An alarm sounded. "He's in v-fib," she said, her voice sharpening when there was no response. She laced her fingers together and leaned on Machello's unmoving chest, snapping, "Prepare the paddles!"
"What," Daniel said, his feet trying to take him to the bedside. A pair of hands pulled him back, and he turned to Griff. "What is that? What is she doing?"
"S'called CPR--his heart's stopped, and she's trying to restart it," Griff said tensely. "Give her space, Jackson, stay back--"
Daniel choked and tried to lunge forward again, more insistently. "His heart--Robert? Robert!"
"Come on," Janet muttered.
"Daniel," Ferretti said, stepping in front of him as a barrier, blocking sight and path at once.
"But..." His attempts to reach Robert thwarted, Daniel turned to Machello instead, pleading this time, "He is going to die. Please! You cannot do this; you're killing him--"
"Wait a minute," Janet called. "I've got a heartbeat."
Daniel whipped around to see her watching the monitor again, one of her hands still resting on her patient's chest.
"It's beating on its own," she announced finally, sagging almost imperceptibly in momentary relief, "but I don't know for how long. Give me one mil eppy."
Movement on the other side of the bed caught Daniel's attention, and he looked over to see Machello looking down at his own dying body. "What are you doing?" Daniel asked him bitterly. "What more could you possibly want from him?"
"Were you lying when you said you had a way to reverse this?"
Daniel widened his eyes in surprise, shaking his head emphatically. "No, no, we were not lying. There is a simple way, and we can do it now." He glanced at the unconscious form on the bed and amended, "We must do it now."
"Do I not deserve a chance to live?" Machello said.
A twisting spike of sympathy took Daniel unawares. "You cannot take it by stealing the life of another. He deserves life, too."
"I am not a Goa'uld," Machello said again, almost as if to himself this time.
"No," Daniel agreed. "You do not have to be. Please."
Machello closed his eyes. When he opened them several moments later, he nodded slowly and looked toward the device again. "Tell me how. I will take his place."
"Jackson?" Ferretti asked sharply.
"He'll do it," Daniel said, relieved and miserable at once.
Griff's eyebrows shot up at the sudden acquiescence, but he didn't ask questions as he quickly pulled the device toward the bed.
Machello was still staring at Robert, but he turned suddenly to Daniel. "I wish I could teach your people how to use my inventions. I truly wish only to destroy the Goa'uld, the same as you."
Swallowing, Daniel answered, "I know."
"Tell your friend," Machello said, reaching for the handles of the device. "I am grateful for the holiday."
"I will," he replied numbly.
"How do we do this?" Janet asked urgently. "How does this work?"
Daniel handed the list of transfers to her and said only, "Hurry."
When everyone had finally found his own body again, he stood silently and held Machello's eyes until Janet gently pulled a sheet over his face.
From the next chapter (" Hosts, Part II"):
"I'd settle for saving one person," Daniel heard himself say before he could bite back the words.
The general pursed his lips. "Is this about Machello?"
"No, sir," he said, because it wasn't. Then, because it kind of was, in a way, "Maybe, sir."