Brotherhood (3/27)
Title: Brotherhood ( Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Pairings: Gen
Chapter1 Chapter2a-- 2b Chapter3
XXXXX
According to Plan
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27 August 1999; Seth's Compound; 1100 hrs
Voices. A hand on his shoulder.
Where...? What...?
Calm. Peace.
Daniel woke and opened his eyes.
"Welcome, disciple," a man said.
Daniel turned, his mind pleasantly relaxed, to find himself lying on a soft pallet of blankets. It was unfamiliar, as were the room around him and the white robe he wore, but as soon as the thought entered his mind, he dismissed it as unimportant.
Of course it was unfamiliar. Never before had he been able to enjoy the honor of serving Seth.
"Are you well?" the young man asked him.
"Yes," Daniel heard himself say.
"Good," the young man said, not smiling, but not unfriendly, either. "Do you feel strong enough to begin service of your god, Seth?"
Suddenly exhilarated at the thought, Daniel sat up. "Yes, of course!"
"This way," the other said, and led him out of the room.
"What would he have me do?" Daniel asked.
"That is for your god to decide," the man said.
"Yes. Of course," he said, trying to hold back unseemly enthusiasm. "I am happy to serve."
Part of his mind turned to strange thoughts, the words 'drug' and 'System Lord' but they didn't make sense, and it didn't matter. The thought was blown away quickly, wisps of half-formed and useless ideas on the wind. He faltered for a moment, wondering, wondering...but then the man with him turned and beckoned, and he stopped wondering and followed. He was content to be allowed simply to enjoy the bliss that was Seth.
"Come," the man said, leading him through yet more twisting, snaking corridors.
The thought of snakes teased at something in Daniel, but he shook his head and continued.
Time flowed oddly. They were walking, and then suddenly they were somewhere else, still walking, but Daniel couldn't remember having made the journey. It was difficult to think, and part of him wanted to push through the odd mist in his mind, to be able to think, think, think, because what was he if he didn't have his own mind, but...
No need to think. Only serve.
Finally, they arrived in a large, open room. Daniel's escort was still, calm, so he forced himself to be so, too. He would not want to displease his lord.
Then, he was before Seth himself.
Seth's eyes glowed. There was a visceral feeling of power, of amazement that filled the air and flitted through Daniel's stomach now as he looked upon the face of his god. He was torn between standing straighter and kneeling and had to resist the urge to salute, either with a fist to the heart or a hand raised to his brow or both arms crossed over his heart. He wasn't sure where any of impulses originated, though, so he remained still and let Seth's gaze search him.
There was an enormous stone box on the floor, big enough to house a person lying down, in full sight beside the throne. It glittered gold and was covered with odd script that Daniel knew, somehow, he would be able to read if he could only see it. Without quite knowing what it was, there was a strange pull toward it. Perhaps it was another implement of his lord's power.
"Are you prepared to serve your god?" Seth asked. All thoughts of the box fled Daniel's mind.
Daniel had fallen to his knees before he could remember thinking about it. "I am prepared," he said. Words floated into his mind, and he voiced them without thinking, "Seth is life. Seth is happiness. Seth is almighty."
Seth nodded once, in approval, and Daniel could have melted with pride. "Stand," Seth ordered. Daniel rose quickly to his feet and was led to a pile of disassembled weapons on the floor.
There was a man--an older one--sitting close to him, who stopped cleaning the gun in his hand as Daniel lowered himself to the floor. When Daniel flicked an appalled, chastising look toward the insolent man, he began to work again.
Daniel settled in his place and found his hands reaching automatically for the correct tools and parts. He knew how to do this, it seemed. Some of the weapons were unfamiliar to him, but he knew some of it, and the mechanics of stripping and cleaning and assembling a gun were so easy for him that he almost didn't need to think. He didn't know how or where he'd learned it--
("Because if you don't, it could malfunction on you."
"I understand why, Jack. I was just asking what this...stuff...is."
"It's just cleaning solvent, Daniel, for cryin' out loud.")
--but it didn't matter where he'd learned it, as long as he could use it to serve now. Seth would be pleased with his work.
"Rise," Seth said.
Daniel looked up, but his lord was beckoning to another servant, a woman slightly older than himself. She came gracefully to her feet and stood before him. Seth turned, leaving them to watch as the female servant waited, barely moving except to breathe.
"Where were you three days ago?" Seth said.
"I was seeking information about the place where my lord's healing chamber was found," the servant answered, gesturing slightly toward the large box by the throne.
"And did you succeed?"
"No, my lord," she said.
Without warning, Seth whirled around, and Daniel caught sight of a metallic glint before the knife sliced neatly through the servant's throat.
She fell to the ground. Daniel watched the red fluid soak into her white dress, spreading through the fabric.
Another servant--a young man, this time--took the blade from Seth and wiped it clean on a cloth. Two others picked up the girl and placed her in the strange box--the healing chamber.
Seth turned to the rest of them in the room and said, "We must prepare for what we will face when the impure forces attempt to destroy us. Remember that they may take your lives, but Seth is the only one who can give life to you. Return to your work, so that we will be ready."
Daniel wasn't sure how long it was before the grinding of stone made him pause again and look up. When he did, light shone from within the box.
"Witness the power and mercy of your god!" Seth said, gesturing. As his hand rose, so did the girl inside, alive and whole again, and if Daniel had needed proof before of Seth's power, there could be no question now.
"I would die for my lord," she said, bowing to him.
"But you live," Seth said, "by your lord's hand."
"Seth is life," Daniel blurted, but it was okay, because the rest of the room was saying it, too. "Seth is happiness. Seth is almighty. Seth is life. Seth is happiness. Seth is almighty!"
Two of the women led the miraculously revived servant away. Daniel bent back over his work, more determined than ever to be ready for the impure forces when they came.
Suddenly, a jolt of pain ripped through him.
Daniel gasped. His stomach lurched as memory flooded back along with the pain, and he had to clench his fists on the barrel of a gun in front of him to fight the temptation to clap a hand over his ear as the burn of electricity subsided.
Nish'ta. Snake. Goa'uld.
Ugh. He'd knelt to that...thing.
And it wasn't just a box, after all, but a sarcophagus. Ay naturu, he'd watched while--
"What is the matter?" a woman next to him said blandly. On the other side of her, a man--Jack, of course, it was Jack--watched him, not halting his hands' movements.
And Jack's face looked blank, still, but his eyes were intensely focused, trying to communicate some message that Daniel didn't quite comprehend, except that it meant neither of them was under nish'ta anymore, and they had to focus and start moving. He'd made a mistake already--if he hadn't made a sound, they might have had more time to reconnoiter, but as it was...
Thinking quickly, Daniel felt under the sleeve of his robe and scratched his hand hard where he'd been cut on a fake control crystal during the training exercises two days before, flinching at the brief flare of pain there when the cut was reopened. "I am unpracticed at this, and I hurt myself," he said as evenly as he could, and held up the arm to show the thin line of blood weeping through his palm. "I'm sorry."
Seth was watching and now flicked a glance toward one of the guards, a young man with dark hair who pulled Daniel gently to his feet and led him away. But to where--a first aid station? Somewhere to wash off and make sure he didn't drip blood on the guns? It wasn't like Seth was afraid of letting blood get all over the--
No. Think about that later.
For now, he was being led away from Jack. Not good--it was too early for that--but still okay, maybe, if not quite according to plan. It was fine. They could do it this way, too, with a little...creativity.
The hallway was empty. The guard leading him held an assault rifle in his hands, and there was a zat'nik'tel hooked onto his belt. He was tall, taller than Daniel, but far too relaxed and unprepared for any resistance. Daniel took a deep breath, thinking of Teal'c's lessons and readying himself, waiting for the guard to turn a corner and look back for him, off-balance for that brief moment...
The guard reached the corner. Wait...wait...
Daniel slammed his body into the guard's and slapped his hand over the man's mouth, trapping the gun against the other man's body and the man's body against the wall. He ducked a fist made clumsy by their awkward position and scrabbled frantically for the zat'nik'tel, but with his left hand on the other's mouth, he couldn't stop one of the guard's hands from fighting with him for the zat gun, too.
One of them primed the zat--he wasn't sure whose finger had done it--but it remained trapped halfway in and halfway out of the holster with Daniel's own body in the way and both of them grappling for control.
Gritting his teeth, Daniel clamped his hand tighter against the man's face as he heard the first muffled sounds of protest beginning to emerge. Using a foot to pull up the bottom of his own robe and expose his bare skin, he wrenched the zat to the side, aimed at his own leg, and, before he could think too hard about it, squeezed the trigger.
Fire seared through Daniel's body, and he sagged into the guard as they both collapsed against the wall in pain. He barely heard the rifle falling to the ground as he thought, Don't pass out, don't pass out, don't...
"Ow," he coughed once his throat unclenched itself enough to speak. "Ow, gods." Rolling shakily off the guard, he finally--belatedly--unhooked the zat'nik'tel and decided that he was very okay with the numb sensation crawling along his shivering limbs; it was better than what it had felt like before, anyway. He nudged the rifle away with a foot and swallowed another ow as he glanced anxiously over his shoulder.
The guard recovered a moment later and looked around himself, confused. "What happened?"
"Oh, good," Daniel breathed, because even though zat energy was supposed to transmit through anything that conducted electricity, it was good to see that he hadn't shot himself for nothing. "It's okay. We're here to help you." He looked back nervously once more and shook off a final few shivers. "Come on, where do they keep the zat'nik'tel?"
"The...what?" the man asked, looking somewhere between panicked and lost. Daniel held up the weapon impatiently. "Oh. Right."
Once they'd entered an empty room and closed the door behind them, he said hurriedly, "I'm Daniel, by the way. We're trying to get you guys out of here."
"Tom," the man said, then opened a cabinet that held more zat'nik'tel than the SGC had collected in two years.
Daniel paused halfway through reaching in to arm himself. "Levinson?" he asked hesitantly, not sure how common the name Tom was, but fairly confident that Tommy was a nickname for Tom as much as Danny was for Daniel.
"Yeah," Tom said, now closer to panic. "How...who are you?"
"I, uh, know your father, Jason--he's been looking for you," he answered. It wasn't an answer, but it quieted Tom, which was good enough.
Next step...what was next? Daniel took a breath and tried to concentrate on the plan they'd agreed to follow. Well, they'd gotten split up much too early, and Sam would have to be ready to back them up much sooner than expected, but Tom was on their side now. If they could get weapons to Jack, then...
"Do you know how to use the transport rings?" Daniel asked Tom, looking through the cabinet of zats. He stuffed two loosely into holsters that he strapped around his lower legs, hidden but reachable--it was a good thing the new recruits had longer, more amorphous robes that reached nearly to the floor. "You have the device that controls the platform?"
"Yeah," Tom said, handing him the device to activate it.
Daniel touched his ear to make sure the earpiece was still there and said quietly, "Teal'c, I have zat'nik'tel and the ring activation device. Seth has a hand device and the sarcophagus, I don't know what else." He ignored Tom's expression, which said he suspected Daniel might be insane. "The other new disciple--the older one? He's my friend," Daniel said to Tom. "Bring me back toward him in the main room, and I'm going to give him this"--he held up a zat--"so you need to block Seth's view of us until we're done."
Tom stared at him dazedly but finally nodded.
Stuffing the zat in his hand back into Tom's belt, Daniel said, "I'm going to help get people out, okay? Do you know of a way to get Seth out of the room?"
"I can...tell him we're under attack?"
Which meant people would start to arm themselves, which could get messy, but they were taking too long already, and if they worked fast...
"Okay," Daniel decided. "Wait a while, though. Say...ten minutes. And when people leave the room, you stay, and I'll send you out through the tunnels."
"This is crazy," Tom hissed, eyes wide.
"Uh-huh," Daniel agreed, with a thrill of something that felt a little like reasonable panic and a little like unreasonable excitement. It wasn't as though he liked being in danger, but he'd been in danger enough to know that adrenaline could lend the kind of courage needed to make it through when the stakes were this high. "It's okay, yeah? Don't worry. Just, uh...act normal."
He crept back into the corridors and waited for Tom to step out as well and grip him by the elbow, then let himself be steered back toward the main room. They bowed once to Seth, and then, as promised, Tom led Daniel back to Jack and maneuvered himself between them and Seth. Daniel knelt and picked up the barrel of something he didn't recognize with one hand while slipping a zat to Jack with the other, making sure to stumble just enough that their robes overlapped. Jack shifted a few inches to give him enough room to sit, tucking the zat under his legs as he moved.
After Daniel had counted two minutes, there was a sideways glance from Jack, and then another. Daniel wished he knew whether there was a hand signal for 'I can't tell you the plan now, but if you wait approximately eight minutes, it will become clear.' The only sign he was sure about was the one to be quiet, but he supposed holding a finger to his lips would be a bit conspicuous, so he settled for reaching for a foregrip from Jack's pile of weaponry while making the sign for 'eight.' When Jack's eyes slid over to him, he brushed a hand over his wrist where he usually wore his chronometer, then wiggled his fingers again to say 'eight.'
Well, actually, it might have been the sign for 'seven,' or possibly 'cuckold;' he wasn't fluent in hand signals, and he might even be using the wrong sign language. Either way, Jack seemed to get the point, which was that there was a plan of some sort, and stopped glancing at him.
Finally, Tom walked back into the room and said, "My lord, the impure forces that you prophesied are approaching the compound."
Seth only smiled, making Daniel wonder briefly if he'd made a mistake after all, but then he stood and beckoned. "We will cleanse our world of them. They will pay eternally," he said.
He swept out of the room with the rest of his followers following, not looking back to see that three men--Daniel, Jack, and Tom--had remained behind.
Actually, there were five, and the other two were real guards who did notice.
Jack whipped around with his zat gun and shot them both easily before they could move. "No, no, no, no!" Daniel whispered urgently as the gun turned toward Tom. Jack lowered the zat, glancing sharply around the room. "Hurry," Daniel told Tom, who handed his zat to Jack and helped the other two toward the platform. "Follow the tunnel and go up the ladder at the end. Your father's out there."
"Geez, Daniel, warn a guy," Jack breathed, standing and taking the other zat as Daniel pulled out his last weapon for himself and pressed the ring activation device. Tom and two befuddled young men disappeared in a flash of white.
Sam appeared in their place, fully geared. She was holding two more zat'nik'tel, as planned, but her father was with her--not as planned--and he held only one zat'nik'tel. His other hand was encased in a ribbon device. Teal'c was there, too, with zats.
"What're you two doing here?" Jack hissed. "He's gonna know!"
"The plan has changed--he already knows someone is coming, and his hand device gives him a shield," Selmak said curtly, holding up his own hand device. Sam handed Daniel and Jack new, two-way earpieces, and they hurriedly swapped theirs out. "I will find Seth."
"Daniel, go," Jack told him, then took to one corridor while Sam and Teal'c each went another way. Daniel hurried to the ring transporter and sent himself into the tunnels, gripping his zat in one hand and the ring activating device in the other as he stood to the side and waited.
"Three," Sam's voice said in his ear. "Now, Daniel."
He pressed the device again, and a confused group of Seth's followers--three of them--appeared in the tunnels. "Hurry up!" Daniel said to them, pointing the way out of the ring chamber. "Follow the tunnel and climb up the ladder at the end." Six people so far.
"Now," Teal'c whispered. Four more dazed followers appeared in the tunnels.
And then Jack's, "Four of 'em--go!"
And then there were another three, making seventeen. Then eight all at once, which he supposed probably meant two or more of them had caught up to each other and were working together now, and then a group of seven. Another five was thirty-seven in total, all sent down to the tunnel. Was that everyone?
Then there was a crash! in his ear, followed by more than one man's yelling and Sam's voice calling, "Dad!"
"Sam? Jack?" Daniel said, hoping they could hear him. "Teal'c!" Static crackled in his ear loud enough to hurt his eardrums, and he pulled the earpiece out.
Trying not to panic at the sudden loss of contact, Daniel looked toward the other end of the tunnel, where a sea of white robes was moving toward the ladder, pulled out one by one by the ATF. He primed his zat, not sure whether his SG-1 was going to come out soon or if Seth was.
And then he realized he held the ring activation device and had no way to know when or if the rest of his team needed to be transported out.
Daniel looked back one more time, satisfied that all of Seth's followers seemed to be making their way out. He bit his lip, stepped onto the platform, and pressed the device.
The main room was empty when he was transported inside. With no idea where to go--and because his job was to watch the rings, albeit from the other end--Daniel stayed in the room and ducked back behind the throne for cover. The sarcophagus was next to him, still open, glowing from within, as if trying to tempt--
He looked determinedly away.
Heavy footsteps sounded from the corridor on the left. Daniel swallowed and held his zat at the ready.
Jack ran in, carrying Jacob over his shoulders. "General!" Daniel said, emerging from behind his cover. "What happened? Where's Seth?"
"Carter's on it," Jack said, only sparing him a single glance before lowering Jacob to the ground. "Teal'c's with her. I'm going back to help. Get Jacob to the rings and then both of you get out!"
Daniel knelt at Jacob's side. "General?"
"We will survive," Selmak said.
There was no visible wound that Daniel could see, but Jack had been carrying him, which meant something was wrong. "Can you stand?" Daniel asked, worming his shoulders under one of Jacob's arms and helping him up to his feet. No hand device--how had he lost it? Unless he had taken it off himself... "Are you okay? Tell me if I'm hurting you, or Jacob..."
"M'okay, Daniel," Jacob's voice said, sounding winded and half-choked, but definitely not dead. Not dead was good.
Daniel had just lowered Jacob to the ring platform when Jack came flying back into the room to land hard on his back. "Jack!"
"Go, I said, go!" Jack wheezed, rolling stiffly to his hands and knees. Daniel ran over and braced himself under Jack's arm instead to help him the rest of the way to his feet. "Daniel, he's coming, just go, I'm good--"
"Sam, Teal'c?" Daniel asked.
As if in answer, a Goa'uld's voice roared angrily from down the hall. Daniel felt Jack pull away and let go of his arm. He grabbed at his zat'nik'tel, only to find that he'd dropped it without even realizing it. He looked back, saw Seth stalking toward them, and darted behind the sarcophagus again, reaching for his weapon as Jack rolled to one side and fired, only for the zat energy to be turned by the Goa'uld personal shield.
"Hey!" Sam yelled from behind Seth, raising her hand. Daniel's breath caught as he recognized the ribbon device she wore, remembering now that Jolinar had left the ability to use it within her.
Before Seth could turn around or react at all, he was thrown off his feet and into a wooden cabinet, knocking it down in a shower of debris. "Now, Daniel!" Sam ordered.
Automatically, Daniel pressed the device that controlled the ring platform. Then he remembered he wasn't standing on it.
"Dammit!" Jacob yelled hoarsely as the rings activated around him. "What the hell do you th--"
He was transported down, and Jack joined Daniel behind the sarcophagus with a sharp, "Stay down!" Teal'c was sneaking silently toward them from a side corridor as Seth found his footing again. Daniel bit his lip and shrank back a little--the plan had changed almost immediately and had continued changing since then, and he wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing now--
There was a thud, and Seth stumbled back a few paces into a wall but quickly regained his footing. He threw Sam against the nearest wall, and she fell with a grunt. As she struggled to recover and raise her own hand again, Teal'c left his cover and fired his zat'nik'tel.
The Goa'uld personal shield activated, and the zat energy dissipated harmlessly, but Seth's attention was no longer fixed on Sam alone while she caught her breath. "You cannot defeat me!" Seth cried, raising his glowing hand device toward Teal'c.
Jack rose on his knees to fire his own zat'nik'tel, so Daniel stopped thinking about the plan, raised his weapon, and did the same, neither of them doing any damage but making Seth pause long enough for Teal'c to duck back down behind a wall.
"Setesh!" Sam shouted, still on the ground.
With no more warning, Seth hurtled through the air and slammed into the far wall with a loud crack. Daniel flinched, and he wondered distantly what that crack had been as Seth crumpled to the ground, unmoving, lying at an unnatural angle that no spine should be able to sustain.
Dead. Broken.
Jack moved to check the body, zat held out, just in case. Daniel's feet walked him there, too, and he stared, mesmerized, at Seth's open, unseeing eyes, willing his stomach to stay in place.
"He's dead," Daniel heard himself say.
Jack glanced once at him, then turned to tell Sam, "Hail Dorothy." There was a pause, and then, "Carter!"
"Captain Carter, are you injured?" Teal'c was saying. Daniel turned as well to see Sam still lying where she'd fallen with the other two already crouched at her side.
"Knocked the wind out of me," she said breathlessly, twisting to try to stand and grimacing at the sight of the debris she'd landed on. "I'm okay, just help me up. Let's get out of..." She froze with one hand reaching for Teal'c's shoulder. "Oh, damn..."
"What?" Jack said sharply. "What's wrong--"
Tick. Tick.
Daniel leaned across her body and saw the metallic ball, Goa'uld numbers flashing on the display.
"Eight," he read from the device. "Seven..."
"An explosive," Teal'c said, and pulled Sam roughly to her feet.
"Move," Sam said, holding Teal'c's arm as they staggered together toward the ring platform. "Rings!"
Jack scooped up the ball and rolled it down the nearest hallway, where it clattered down the stone of the next room, then ran for the ring platform behind them. Just as Daniel activated the rings, an explosion sounded in a distant room, and then another--
When they stumbled out together in the underground tunnels again, Jacob was waiting, looking torn between relief and anger. Daniel took a second to notice that everyone was on his or her feet once again, although Jack was rubbing his back and Sam was still leaning on Teal'c.
"Setesh?" Selmak asked.
"Dead," Teal'c said shortly.
"Let's go," Jack said, and they made their way out of the tunnels.
XXXXX
27 August 1999; Seth's Compound, Washington; 1300 hrs
Jack rolled out an ache in his shoulders. Stupid snakes. He glanced over his shoulder at the car, where Daniel was inside, changing out of his 'I-love-Seth' robe.
"Carter?" he asked, watching her stuff the hand device into a bag, out of sight, before anyone saw and asked questions.
She glanced at him, clenching her jaw and pushing the bag far enough away that it was out of her reach. "Sir."
He hesitated, eyeing the bag warily, then finally said, "Nice job. Saved our asses back there."
"Yes, sir," Carter said, but in a particularly unhappy tone of voice.
"You okay?"
"Yes, sir," she repeated. "A little bruised, that's all."
"It's okay, just a delayed reaction," Jacob was saying. Jack turned to see Daniel sitting sideways out of the car in his normal BDUs, his elbows on his knees and his head down. "Adrenaline, dead body... Don't worry about it. Nice job, kid."
"I'm sorry you had to see that, Daniel," Carter said to him. "Seth. I don't think we could have saved him, under the circumstances, but still, that was an awful..."
"No," Daniel said, lifting his head immediately, his face pale but earnest. "Sam, you saved us. And I like ribbon devices a lot better when you're using them," he added, smiling in feeble joke, though his gaze twitched once toward the bag. Though no one mentioned it, Jack knew he had a particular aversion to ribbon devices, ever since Apophis had used one to capture him from Abydos and then Klorel had used another one on him a few months later. Given that they'd all spent hours after that thinking he was dead (permanently), Jack wasn't fond of ribbon devices, either.
"Everyone else okay?" Jack asked.
"All of Setesh's followers are unharmed," Teal'c said.
Carter was still stealing wary glances at the ribbon device, but she'd get over it, because she was Carter. Daniel looked like he wished he could make that white robe they'd been wearing spontaneously combust if he glared at it hard enough. Glaring, though--Jack would take 'glaring' over any number of potential reactions, especially when dead Goa'uld were involved.
"Tom?" Daniel said suddenly, looking at him.
"No, I'm Jack," Jack said.
Daniel frowned at him. "Tommy Levinson. He's the one who showed me where to find the zat'nik'tel--he was in the first group we sent down. Did he...?"
"He's fine," Jacob answered. "He's with his father."
"What are we telling them about Seth?" Carter asked.
Jack tried to think about exactly how much he remembered from the nish'ta-colored haze. Not much in terms of specifics, which was good; the haziness could work to their advantage. "Mind-altering substance," he said. "Makes you more open to suggestion."
"Hallucinogenic," Carter added, nodding. "To explain the things they saw."
"What about the technology in there?" Daniel said. "There are still a lot of zat'nik'tel, and there's a djera'kesh on Seth's hand. The sarcophagus is still there--I don't think it got blown up--and I'm sure there's more in there, too."
Jack met Jacob's eyes. "Experimental technology," Jack said. "Classified. We'll need a cleanup team here, anyway, so if we can just make sure everyone stays out until we're done, we should be okay. Hey, we'll get a nice load of Goa'uld tech from this salvage," he added.
"It'll be a nice haul even after splitting with the Tok'ra," Jacob said.
"Splitting--excuse me?" Jack said indignantly.
He dipped his head and Selmak said, "Jacob is being facetious. The Tok'ra do not need extra zat'nik'tel as much as you likely would; however, we will ask to see what is there, to help you in identifying the devices if nothing else."
Jacob returned and complained, "Selmak never lets me have any fun."
Daniel was watching them in fascination, his mouth slightly open and his eyes wide. Jack rolled his eyes and said, "I guess we're keeping the sarcophagus at the SGC from now on, huh?"
"We'll have to make sure it wasn't damaged in the explosions," Carter said. "We could have someone go in and check..."
"Let's leave it to the cleanup crews," Jack said. "Hopefully, I got the bomb far enough away. Either that, or we'll hope you can fix it, Carter."
She grimaced. "I'll hope for the former, sir," she advised.
"Well, I'll talk go to the feds," Jacob said. "I'll make sure everyone gets our story and stays out of that building until the SGC gets here."
"We should talk to the victims, too," Daniel said. "I know it's not technically our job, but we can't just leave without telling them anything and or letting anyone else learn anything they're allowed to tell them." He frowned, as if he'd managed to confuse himself with his own sentence, then amended, "We owe them some explanation."
Jack hesitated, looking at Daniel uncertainly, but then again, they'd just gone in together to clear out a Goa'uld compound, so speaking with the victims didn't seem like something anyone here couldn't handle. "You sure you're feeling okay, kid?"
"Yes," Daniel said, pushing off the back of the car and even holding out his newly bandaged hand to show there was no harm done. "I should go help. I'm your transl...well, the...communication...person."
Jack snorted. "Good show. Just remember the cover story better than you remember your words, communication person."
"All of you take it easy," Jacob said. "Help get some of this sorted if you want--figure out what they know or what they remember about Seth--and then get some rest."
A few minutes later, Jacob was talking to Hamner, Teal'c and Daniel were talking to Seth's victims, and Jack was on the phone talking to Hammond with Carter.
"Yes, sir, the mission was a success," he reported. "Seth is dead."
"Any other fatalities?" Hammond asked.
"None. All of Seth's followers were recovered and are physically unharmed. But we are going to need a team to identify and take care of Seth's body and any Goa'uld technology left inside the compound. They should be advised that there were explosives, and it's possible not everything was detonated."
"Understood, Colonel. I'll send some men your way immediately. Speaking of technology...?"
"The sarcophagus is in there. I recommend that we leave it locked up at the SGC this time, sir."
"Agreed. And how's your team?"
"Fine. Everything went off with as few hitches as could be expected," Jack said. "A few bruises, the usual--but we're fine."
"The nish'ta, sir," Carter reminded him.
"Oh, and Daniel and I were dosed with some kind of brainwashing drug, kind of like the stuff Hathor used. Jacob's sure it's eliminated, but I recommend that anyone who goes into that building exercise a lot of caution, in case the drug's still floating around."
There was a short pause, and then, "Colonel, if you were dosed with a brainwashing drug, you put me in a position of being unable to accept your word at face value."
"Crap," Jack muttered tiredly, thinking he really should have waited until they got back to mention that. "Well, both Teal'c and Jacob are immune because of their Goa'ulds. You remember that from the Hathor incident, sir, I assume. Should I get them to vouch for me?"
A sigh, but more of exasperation than of relief or annoyance. "That would help. Just to avoid any questions, Jack."
"Yes, sir." He covered the mouthpiece and called, "Teal'c! Daniel! Get over here!" Teal'c started back. Daniel, because he obeyed orders fine in combat but picked and chose otherwise, only held up an index finger, still talking to a young woman wrapped in a blanket. Once the Jaffa was there and Daniel was finally making his way back, Jack thrust the phone out and said, "Teal'c, tell the general I'm not crazy, would you?"
"General Hammond," Teal'c said into the phone, "Colonel O'Neill has ordered me to inform you that he is not crazy."
Great--convincing, Jack thought, though Hammond knew them well enough that he'd probably be amused. "You and Teal'c learn anything?" he said aloud, opening another car door so Daniel could take a seat and still talk to them. "What are they saying?"
"It's not clear," Daniel said. "Everyone's very disoriented, but really, anything could have happened in there. Obviously, at least one of them has used the sarcophagus."
"Probably more," Jack said. There had been more than one bloodstain on the floor. Daniel winced but nodded in agreement.
"Then we have no idea how many may have been put into that sarcophagus," Carter added. "I'd recommend a thorough medical examination for all of them, though. They'd need to, anyway, just in case anything worse went on in there that you didn't witness, sir."
"Yeah," Jack sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "How about in terms of any plans Seth had? Anything we need to know about?"
"So far, it looks like both the men and women were used mostly as guards or domestic servants without being told why or what was going on," Daniel said.
"I am in agreement," Teal'c said, hanging up the phone with the general. "It is possible that Seth intended to expand his power, but that is no longer a threat." Jack opened his mouth to say something else, but Teal'c turned to Daniel and said, "Daniel Jackson, you were forced to discharge a zat'nik'tel upon yourself, were you not?"
"Uh...well, yes," Daniel said, a little defensively. "I didn't see any other option at the time."
Apparently, it was performance review time, because Teal'c continued, "You left yourself momentarily incapacitated. Why were there no other options?"
"Because Tom was about to start yelling for help, Teal'c, and there was no way I would have been able to hold onto him for much longer. But it did work. And I got the zats, so..."
"Then what was your mistake?"
Carter raised her eyebrows at Jack, who gave her a small shrug in return but didn't interrupt. Daniel fidgeted in embarrassment, giving the two of them a look, although Jack wasn't sure if he wished they weren't listening to him being dressed down or if he hoped they'd intervene. Finally, he sighed and told Teal'c, "I knew he was bigger than I was, and I still got up close and tangled up and let it become a contest of strength, which I don't think I would have won if it had gone on much longer."
Teal'c made a low noise of agreement. "Was there another way?"
Daniel squinted an eye, as if trying hard to picture the situation. "Um...I suppose... I might have been able to grab his zat without touching him at all, even just turned it in the holster without trying to take it. But he had a gun--"
"You have been instructed on Tau'ri firearms," Teal'c interrupted. "What kind of gun?"
"Submachine, looked like an--oh," Daniel said, wincing. "If I'd gotten close enough, it would have been difficult for him to use an Uzi with a shoulder stock when it was strapped to his body. By the time he'd decided to shoot or try to club me with it, I probably could have zatted him."
"If he did not suspect you, you should have attempted stealth first," Teal'c said. "Your method was acceptable, but you are very fortunate that it worked."
"Yeah, I know," Daniel muttered. "Don't worry, I won't be shooting myself again anytime soon."
"Good idea," Jack said. "You okay?"
Daniel grimaced. "I can't imagine what it would be like to live under nish'ta for months or years. It must be horrible. Can you imagine anything worse than losing control of your own mind?"
"Maybe not," Jack agreed, then repeated, "So, you okay?"
"Me? Oh, yes, I'm fine," Daniel replied, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "A little, uh...disturbed by the idea of prostrating myself before a Goa'uld, but..."
"All for a good cause," Carter assured him.
"Well, you, too, then," he retorted, with a look at the Goa'uld hand device.
"That's how it is when you go undercover," Jack told him. "You do and say stuff you'd never do normally." Teal'c nodded once in agreement. "That's how the game goes."
"I was afraid I'd messed it up from the start," Daniel admitted.
"Never rely on plan A to work," Jack advised.
"Actually, plan A was your getting in undetected. So I was already on plan B, and I don't think we'd made a C, which was a problem because B went sideways."
"True," Jack conceded. "Sometimes, we have to make it up as we go. You did good," he added honestly. "Improvised well, picked up on the right cues and everything."
"Good. So, uh, Colonel," Daniel said, leaning forward, "you know how part of the assessment for field personnel is performance in the field? And you know I've now formally made a request to be considered for a position on an exploration team as a civilian attaché--will this, uh...have any impact on that at all?"
Jack tried to think of a logical reason to say 'no' and found it just a bit harder than it would have been even a few days ago. There was something about killing off System Lords or would-be System Lords that made everything else seem a lot easier in comparison, dangerous as he knew that outlook to be. He settled on, "We'll see what the general says. All right, everyone take a short break. Then spread yourselves out and work with the feds until our people get here, and then we'll head home."
From the next chapter (" First Contact"):
General Hammond nodded. "In fact, SG-1 was originally assigned a fourth member--a translator. The three of you are resourceful, and I haven't found it necessary to push you to find a permanent fourth member. But it would be appropriate on our flagship team--I'd even say that it's high time you found a cultural specialist or a translator to join you."