Brotherhood (22b/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 Chapter4 Chapter5 Chapter6 Chapter7 Chapter8 Chapter9 Chapter10a-- 10b Chapter11 Chapter12 Chapter13a-- 13b Chapter14 Chapter15 Chapter16a-- 16b Chapter17a-- 17b Chapter18 Chapter19a-- 19b Chapter20 Chapter21a-- 21b Chapter22a-- 22b
4 June 2000; Embarkation Room, SGC; 1800 hrs
"General Hammond, he is a friend!" Teal'c yelled, still holding onto Nyan and looking like he was barely keeping himself on his own feet.
Jack moved down the ramp to where Daniel and Sam were standing side-by-side, and if their faces were too pale, they were both standing, which was the important thing. To his surprise, as soon as he reached them, Daniel reached a hand halfway toward him, stopped, and said urgently, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, it's just Teal'c and Nyan," Jack said, glancing back. "Nothing looks fatal."
"Colonel, let's debrief quickly," the general said, looking over the three of them before moving up to check on Teal'c. "I need to know what happened back there."
"Thank you, sir," Jack said, pulling Daniel away. Carter followed after handing the weapon she'd brought back to an airman with admonitions to be careful. "No one else needs immediate medical attention?" he asked as they moved away from the commotion in the 'gate room and toward the briefing room.
"I'm all right, sir," Carter said. "Daniel?"
"I'm okay. Jack, maybe you should go and get checked out," Daniel said, looking worried again.
Jack raised his eyebrows and glanced at Carter, who seemed rather confused as well. "I told you, Daniel, I'm fine."
"You're not fine; you got electrocuted!" Daniel said, starting to shiver as they crossed the threshold into the briefing room.
"All right," Jack said, holding out a hand. "Sit. Calm down. I feel fine." Mostly. "We all got shocked more than a few times. We'll head over to the infirmary together as soon as we're done here. This won't take long."
"Okay," Daniel said, nodding and blinking myopically. His glasses were missing. "Yeah."
"Sit down," Jack reminded him. Carter smiled at him and pushed him into a chair, but she remained standing herself.
General Hammond hurried in soon after. "Let's make this quick," he said. "As you were."
"Basically, there are two nations at war on the planet, sir," Jack said. "We were on Bedrosia, where they believed all human life was created on their continent by their one true god--"
"Nefertum, the Blue Lotus Blossom," Daniel added. "The son of Sakhmet, servant to Ra. I couldn't find out whether Sakhmet is related to Hathor at all, as Earth's mythologies would suggest, but since Hathor was a System Lord and Sakhmet seemed to have been almost certainly a minor Goa'uld, I doubt it."
Jack turned to stare at him. "When'd they say that?"
"When they were interrogating me," Daniel said. "Rigar said they followed the teachings of Nefertum. We've seen the symbol of the Blossom on Abydos--I just never realized he was a Goa'uld rather than a human slave or Jaffa. But we can ask Nyan when he wakes up."
"Uh...right," Carter said. "Well, the Optricans, the opposing nation, believe they were brought to the planet by aliens through the Stargate, and they've been at war because the Stargate--"
"Which is sacred to them," Jack said.
"--is on Bedrosian soil. The Bedrosians refused to believe our story and thought we were Optrican spies, fabricating a story to prove the Optricans were right about the 'gate."
"Yes, their man--Rigar?--accused me of the same," General Hammond said.
And that was after they'd seen the Stargate work. "Anyway," Jack said, "Teal'c escaped capture, so we just sat tight until he and Nyan rescued us. Someone dug up the DHD at some point, and we came back home."
"Is there any reason not to block that address out of our system?" Hammond asked.
"They had very interesting, very advanced technology," Carter said, "but it would be extremely dangerous for anyone who tried to get it. They don't seem to be the forgiving type or the type to change their belief system so easily."
"I say we never go back again," Jack said fervently. "In fact, I'd bet they're trying to destroy their 'gate right now--get rid of the evidence."
"What about Nyan?" Daniel said.
"Nyan will be probably be shot on sight if he goes back," Jack said, then turned to the general, "He saved our lives, probably Teal'c's, too. We should let him stay, sir."
"Well, we should give him a choice, first," Daniel added, "but I agree that staying here should be one of those choices."
Hammond nodded. "We can get Nyan refugee status on Earth. When he wakes up, we'll make sure he understands the danger of returning to P2X-416, but we will give him a choice if we're able to establish a wormhole. Is there a position you'd be comfortable offering him here at the SGC if he's to stay?"
Jack shrugged. "Didn't he say he found the Stargate because he was digging to try to find a lost civilization in the first place?"
Daniel nodded. "That's right--someone in our department can always use an extra pair of eyes and hands. He seems to be the Bedrosian equivalent of a well-trained archaeologist who is also familiar with advanced technology, at least the kind found on their planet."
"Talk to Dr. Rothman and keep me informed," Hammond said. "Is anyone else here injured?"
"Not seriously, I don't--" Jack started, only to be interrupted by Daniel.
"Jack and Sam were zatted. Jack was...shocked continuously for a long time."
Hammond and Carter both turned to stare at him. "No, I wasn't," Jack said, confused about why this kept coming up.
"Yes, you were!" Daniel snapped, rubbing his arms as if cold. "You were just...unconscious by then. From the zat."
Ah. That explained a lot, including why he felt worse than a regular zatting could account for.
"Daniel needs to get checked out, too," Carter said. "Whatever they used on us, it was like some kind of electrical stun weapon, and they spent a long time...interrogating him."
"I heard them using it on you, too," Daniel muttered.
"All of you, go to the infirmary and submit to an examination," Hammond said, looking concerned at all of them. "I'll get the ball rolling on Nyan."
...x...
4 June 2000; Infirmary, SGC; 1845 hrs
Daniel was being prodded by a nurse and talking to Rothman by the time Jack was finally allowed to hop off his own gurney. Fraiser was still poking around Teal'c but gave Jack a reassuring smile.
"Hey," Jack said. He decided not to poke his head around the curtain into Carter's area, since Daniel's shirt was off and he didn't need to see Carter if she was missing clothing, too. "Doc says I'm fine, so you can stop worrying."
"Good," Daniel said, leaning forward as a nurse dressed something near his shoulder. His fingers clenched on the edge of the bed, and his face twitched as if suppressing a grimace.
Before Jack could say anything, Rothman scowled and sniped, "Well, as long as you're fine, Colonel."
"Robert," Daniel said tightly, glancing at Jack.
"Do I have authority to pull him off your team?" Rothman said, nervous and angry at once.
"No!" Daniel said, squirming away from the nurse to reach for his shirt, only to be manhandled back into place. "Ow! No, it's fine," he added quickly as Jack peeked around him, noting bruises and scrapes and trying to see what was under the gauze. "Robert, he was telling me because I've been worried, all right?"
Finally, the nurse gave Jack a nod, made a checkmark and a couple of notes on Daniel's chart, and moved away from the bed. "Stay here until the doctor can speak with you, sir." Daniel reclaimed his shirt and pulled it on so he could fold his arms properly. He moved easily enough that Jack figured his injuries were probably minor.
"Either way, it looks like we're all more or less fine now," Jack said.
"I almost got you killed," Daniel muttered.
"Hey," Jack said sharply. "You did everything you were supposed to."
"He was going to kill you, Jack! He asked about the zat'nik'tel, and I told him how they worked, but I didn't know they were going to shoot you, I swear--"
Jack grabbed the edge of the nearest curtain and pulled it around the bed, deliberately leaving Rothman outside it. "We're safe, and that's all that matters," Jack said. "It's a good thing they didn't think the zats were some sort of nonlethal stun weapon they could shoot more than once."
"I could've stopped him."
"No, you couldn't," Jack said firmly. "We know exactly how you feel, Daniel. Carter and I could hear what they were doing to you out by the DHD--"
"I didn't say anything about the DHD," Daniel insisted. "I tried to talk about Nefertum instead, I didn't say--"
"I know," Jack said. "You did everything you were supposed to. But if either of us had told them about Teal'c, they might've stopped, and we didn't. You get it?"
"It wasn't that bad."
Jack thought that was a lie but couldn't actually tell, so he said, "Honestly, it was bad for us listening to it. I know how you feel."
Daniel bit his lip, thinking that over, and said, "They wouldn't have killed me. It's different with you. They knew you weren't going to break, and they needed me alive to talk to them."
"Well, from where I'm standing, it looks like you didn't break, either," Jack said quietly. "Under torture, Daniel--and that includes making you watch them shoot us. You kept your head, kept your eyes open and picked up a lot of information without giving up any of your own. I'm sorry it happened, but I tell you, you did everything right."
"Why are you sorry?" Daniel said, and then ripped the curtain aside to where Rothman was still standing. Daniel looked between him and Jack, then said, "You're not going to try to take me off the team every time something bad happens, are you?"
"You want off?" Jack asked, because sometimes it seemed like the bad things got worse and worse each time.
"No," Daniel said slowly, frowning in the way that meant he was afraid someone would overrule him anyway.
"Anyone who has a problem with Daniel on my team can talk to me and Hammond somewhere that's not the infirmary," Jack said, looking at Rothman. "Daniel, I need to talk to you later, too, after you get some rest."
Daniel gave Rothman a long look full of glares and significantly waggling eyebrows. "He's my responsibility, too, Colonel," Rothman said.
"I get that," Jack said, somehow feeling glad about that and defensive of it at the same time. Rothman opened his mouth like he was going to say something else, then closed it and turned away.
"Actually," Daniel said, sliding off the bed with a wince and hunting around for his shoes. Jack watched him, cataloguing the way he rolled his shoulders stiffly (muscles protesting from the Bedrosian stun weapons, no doubt), fumbled a bit with his left hand (he'd probably scraped the right while running, maybe fallen on it), and straightened more slowly than usual (careful, like he was tired but not off-mission yet). All in all, acceptable. "Robert, I need to talk to you about Nyan."
As Jack watched, Daniel pulled a reluctant Rothman aside, placing himself between the archaeologist and Jack to cut off their line of sight.
Carter appeared from around the curtain just as Fraiser approached. "Colonel," the doctor said, "Teal'c will be just fine with a day or so of rest. Nyan, too--we'll keep an eye on his concussion, but barring complications, he'll be out around the same time as Teal'c. For the rest of you, the weapons you described don't seem to have done too much external damage. Some irritation..."
"We didn't come into direct skin contact with the weapons, for the most part," Carter offered.
"I thought that might be the case. Daniel does have a mild burn on his back, and Colonel O'Neill, as well." Jack resisted the urge to pick at the bandage sticking out of the back of his shirt, where he'd apparently been lying on electrified wire. "That seems to be the only external injury aside from a few bruises. I expect all of you will be pretty sore and tired over the next few days, and I don't want any of you leaving the base for the next twenty-four hours."
"What?" Jack said, dismayed.
"I'm just thankful everyone came back with his or her heart still beating, Colonel," she said firmly. "I'd rather wait until I'm sure there are no complications."
...x...
5 June 2000; Infirmary, SGC; 0900 hrs
Jack walked into the infirmary the next morning with the intention of checking on Teal'c, only to find Rothman sitting in a chair next to Nyan's bed. Daniel was sitting on the next mattress over at Teal'c's feet, both of them turned at an angle to see Nyan, who was saying very carefully, "Thank you. What is...this?" He held up a pen.
"That is a pen," Daniel said clearly, then noticed Jack. "That," he told Nyan, "is Colonel Jack O'Neill. You can call him Jack or Colonel O'Neill."
"Hello, Colonel O'Neill," Nyan said as Daniel turned around and grinned. "My name is Nyan. I am pleased to meet you." Then he gave a shy smile and said, "Thank you."
"No, no, thank you, Nyan," Jack said amiably. To Daniel, he said, "Can I talk to you a minute?"
Daniel's expression became wary, but he gave Nyan a final smile as he hopped to the floor and said, "Yeah, sure. Excuse me," he added to Nyan and Teal'c.
As they stepped outside, Nyan could be heard asking Teal'c, "What is 'excuse me?'"
"Teaching him English?" Jack said once they were in the hall outside the infirmary.
"I volunteered to start with him. So did Teal'c, and Robert when he has time. Obviously, language isn't the only cultural barrier, but it's an important one. He learns fast."
"Like you, then."
"But with several more years of learning in his background," Daniel corrected, then lowered his voice. "I don't think it's really hit him yet. Once he gets out of bed, he'll realize he can't go home. So Teal'c and I want to...make sure he settles in, I guess. And..."
"And what?" Jack said.
"He felt bad about shooting people yesterday. I talked to him--Teal'c and I both talked to him," he amended when Jack raised his eyebrows.
"You realize he's older than you?" Jack pointed out. "We'll take care of him, don't worry--"
"You realize he's never used a weapon before? He felt bad. We talked. It's fine."
Jack sighed but had to acknowledge, "Yeah, I guess you would understand. Well, that's nice of you guys."
Daniel still looked wary. "Is something wrong?"
"With Nyan? No. I just wanted to make sure you were okay," Jack said. "We didn't get to talk much last night before Teal'c and Nyan woke up, and then you were out like a light yourself."
"You mean about what happened on Bedrosia?"
"Yes, I mean about what happened on Bedrosia."
"I...wish it hadn't happened?" Daniel said, looking confused.
Jack almost rolled his eyes but, while Daniel wasn't as innocent as he might have been once, he didn't think they'd yet gotten to a point at which they could deal with things like this by laughing them off. "I'm not looking for a right answer. Are you gonna be okay with it?"
"I've been hurt worse before."
"Not like that."
Daniel tilted his head, thinking. "You would have been electrocuted--and I mean 'killed'--if General Hammond hadn't chosen exactly that moment to dial in."
"That's possible," Jack allowed. "But--"
"But it's a risk, I know," Daniel said, looking down. "I understand why you told us not to say anything...I agree with the order, Jack. I just...don't like it."
"So..." Jack said.
"So I'm not happy with what happened," Daniel said, blinking.
"I'm not happy either," Jack said carefully, "but I'm not going to knock the outcome."
Daniel didn't answer at first, but he was still thinking, so Jack let him, because when Daniel let things fester without thinking, they had a tendency to explode later. He still wasn't sure when Daniel had stopped jumping into everything without thinking: whether it was something that had just happened as he grew up, or if it was from a different sort of stress now that his brother and sister were safe, or if it had happened during those months when Jack hadn't been on base for him to argue with.
"I understand it was the best course of action with a chance of being rescued by Teal'c," Daniel finally said. "Actually, you know what annoys me? They wouldn't believe us." Jack raised his eyebrows. "No, I mean...obviously, it annoyed me that they kept shocking us, too."
"Yes," Jack said, bemused. "That was very annoying of them."
Daniel made a face. "Yes, wrong word. But think about it--the fact that they refused to believe the truth about the Stargate--even after they saw it work--meant they would never have let us go, no matter what, unless we lied and said we were Optricans, in which case...well..."
"Bad idea."
"Yeah. There was nothing we could say."
"You can't win 'em all," Jack said. "Sometimes we've gotta just cut our losses and run."
"I know that," Daniel said. "It's just...if we're running away from someone and we get shot, at least we knew we did our best, right? But yesterday...it's not just that. There's a choice between talking or not talking, or intervening or not intervening. And one of the choices is bad, and the other one is worse but it looks better in the short term, so..."
"Ironic," Jack said. "You have more choices, and you still feel more helpless."
Daniel looked surprised, then disturbed. "Yes," he agreed. "I think that's exactly what I meant."
Jack nodded. "We're fighters here. It's hard when they don't give us anything to fight." Not even words, for those of them who weren't fluent in the language.
"I'm not a fighter."
Which was a complete lie, of course, whether he realized it or not. Jack thought Daniel didn't know anything else anymore except to fight, and as much as he felt bad about it sometimes, it had kept him alive so far. "Bull. If you're not a fighter, I don't know who is."
Daniel glanced back into the infirmary. "Jack, the first time they used those--shock-weapons, I thought...I mean, it hurt, but it wasn't... I couldn't see why anyone thought that was an effective interrogation technique. And then..."
When he stopped, Jack filled in, "And the next time it hurt more and you wanted it to stop. The next time, you wondered if it was going to kill you, and giving in started to sound like a good idea."
Daniel nodded, folding his arms. "I was never going to turn in Teal'c. But I was...afraid it would--it would get worse, and then I'd forget that I wasn't supposed to say anything."
"I'll need to go over some things with you," Jack said, wishing he didn't have to say it at all. "You should know about different...techniques you might face in an interrogation. There are things you can do or think to help you resist. There are protocols we follow that you need to know. If we'd been a little smarter, we'd have realized you needed to be taught sooner."
"Okay," Daniel said, frowning. "Okay. Teach me, then."
"And I need you to understand that yesterday was...not good, but it could've been a lot worse, physically and psychologically. Daniel, if you get captured, you try like hell to escape, but I'll be honest--most of the time, the odds are against you. You're doing well just to stay alive."
Daniel nodded soberly. "I understand."
"Do you?" Jack said.
"Probably not entirely, without experiencing it myself," Daniel admitted. "But I understand the risk--I'm not going into this blindly. I don't know why Robert was so angry last night. It was probably--he saw the MALP telemetry of us in the cages and you and Sam unconscious, and he wasn't happy about it."
"Carter talked to me, too," Jack said. "She's concerned about how this will affect you."
A tinge of worry appeared in Daniel's expression. "Well. I was concerned, too, when she got zatted and hit her head on electrified wire before passing out, Jack. I know as well as anyone else who walks through the Stargate that we could be captured or hurt or killed."
"Some would rather you weren't given that choice," Jack said, curious about what the answer would be. "Don't pretend you don't understand why we have age limits."
"I'm almost seventeen by your years," Daniel said so promptly that Jack realized he'd already prepared an answer for just this situation. "Even disregarding my age of majority by my own nation's standards, in a month I'd be allowed to be join your military by your laws. International law would allow my voluntary enlistment as a soldier in wartime right now in many countries, and I'm not even asking to do that. I trust you and Sam and Teal'c--"
"We'll try, but we can't always protect you," Jack said, not mentioning that there were plenty of people unhappy with allowing people Daniel's age from joining any military in any country. "Obviously. You saw that yesterday."
Because their laws weren't always applicable to what the SGC faced, and because the SGC sometimes played a little fast and loose with those laws and couldn't be regulated by normal means, the NID was the one organization that should have had the ability and jurisdiction to sort out ethical issues like this. Dealing with their own ethical problems, though, had turned NID scrutiny away from the SGC, and while Jack thought SG personnel did a pretty good job on their own most times, he also knew that they would have gotten hell from anyone else for certain things, like Daniel's joining SG-1 for missions that had turned out to be very unsafe. The top secret classification protected them from that scrutiny, too, and Jack was sure he wasn't the only one who felt a little guilty about that. What was done was done, but even if it was irreversible now, that didn't mean it was irreproachable.
"Well, I'll try, too, but I can't always talk reason into people even when I speak the language," Daniel said, raising his chin. "You saw that yesterday. If you accept that, then I accept any risk we can't cover between the four of us."
"I figured you'd say that." Jack sighed, though whether it was in resignation or in relief, he couldn't have said. "No one's pulling you off the team, but I do want you to take the next couple of weeks for some less intense work on base."
Daniel opened his mouth as if to argue, then closed it, frowning. Then he said, "You mean, to make sure I don't have some sort of delayed reaction and..." He waved a hand in the air. "...and do something stupid. I understand."
Jack's eyebrows rose. "You do?"
"I don't think I need it," Daniel said, glancing away toward Teal'c and Nyan again. "I'm okay this time, really, but I have done stupid things before, so--"
As a nurse walked past, Jack reached out quickly to pull Daniel out of the way just as he turned back around. Daniel flinched violently from his hand, jumping back into the wall with his arms raised as if to cover his head. "Whoa--hey," Jack said, waving the nurse past. "You okay?"
Looking stunned, Daniel lowered his arms. "Huh," he said feebly. "Well. That was weird."
"Uh-huh," Jack said, watching him carefully now.
"That..." Daniel started, then cleared his throat. "That wasn't...you know."
"No," Jack agreed.
"Just a normal response to a--an object coming toward my, uh...my head."
"Yeah." Or a response drilled into his head by enemy interrogators the day before.
"But, uh...I see your point," Daniel said.
"I wasn't trying to make a point."
"Well, it worked, anyway." Daniel took a breath, then shrugged. "Maybe I should spend some time in the gym--you know, get used to you and Teal'c beating me again, huh?"
The nurse walked past them again on her way in but paused at hearing the end of that sentence. Jack sighed, rolling his eyes. It took Daniel a minute, and then he snickered. "Laugh it up," Jack told him, waving the nurse past them again. "Really--rest a couple of days. Then you'll go over a few protocols with me, go to the gym, read a book, talk to whomever about whatever...all right?"
"All right," Daniel said. "I'm really okay, though. Just twitchy right now. You know...reflex--"
"Yeah, I know."
"I know better by now than to say I'm fine and go out there with you if I'm not--"
"I know," Jack repeated. "It's been less than a day."
Daniel gave him a half-smile. "A few bad nights coming up, then, I'm sure." Jack grimaced. That was probably true, and they both knew it. "No, I know. It's...it'll--"
"We'll be fine."
"Right." Daniel was silent for a while. "This is a lot of work. This whole...handling things properly."
Jack suppressed a smile, because it wasn't really funny, and nodded. "Yeah, it is. But it's less work than letting yourself get stuck in a rut and having to pull yourself back out afterward. This isn't an easy job--you have to take care of yourself to do it."
"So...I guess I'm obeying your order, Colonel. I'll stick to deskwork until I'm sure I'm fine."
"Finally, five minutes after I gave the order. You couldn't just say, 'yes, sir' for once?"
"No, sir," Daniel deadpanned.
"You are such a pain in the ass," Jack said, earning a grin. And then, he realized how rarely he said this, if he'd said it before at all. "Daniel, look, I wish yesterday hadn't happened, but I'm proud of you. There is literally no one on this base who could've done better yesterday."
Rather than taking the praise for what it was, though, Daniel said, "About yesterday...I need to say that this is exactly what I was talking about before, after the NID undercover--"
"Daniel, let's not--"
"No, Jack, listen," Daniel said. "This is what I meant. I'll argue with you, but when it comes to something like what happened yesterday, I won't let you down."
"You tried to convert them, didn't you?" Jack said. "Parey, maybe? That's how you knew about their Goa'uld."
"But not at the risk of exposing Teal'c. I wouldn't have given that away, but I had to try," Daniel pressed, looking anxious but determined. "There was a chance I could convince one of them, which might have made escape easier, but no matter what, I would not have compromised the mission. Or any one of us."
"I just have to trust that you'll know where to draw the line each time?" Jack said.
"I trust you with my life every time I ship out with you," Daniel pointed out. "If you're not going to trust me, fine, but then I have no business being on your team. I haven't earned it yet?"
Jack remembered the sound of Daniel's screaming and then his frantic insistence on telling them about the DHD even as he cowered from the stun weapon. He was going to be remembering that for a long time. "Oh, yeah," Jack said quietly. "I'd say you've more than earned my trust." He hesitated, then reached forward again. This time, Daniel didn't twitch as Jack set a hand on his shoulder. "The NID op. It was about deceit."
Daniel looked up at him. "Uh...right?" he said.
"I can't teach you that," Jack said. He wanted to look away, but he forced himself to keep staring at Daniel's confused expression. "It's not like drilling tactics, and you don't learn those skills out of a book or a lesson plan. I can give you tips, tell you what to look for, how to think. But the rest of it is experience. That's experience that I have."
"I'll learn it," Daniel said. He understood what was being said.
"No, I don't want you stuck in that mindset," Jack said. "And that's not why I need you on my team. But...that doesn't mean you can't help another way. We'll figure out a way next time."
"I'll learn what I need to," Daniel said, "and next time, we'll be ready."
Jack nodded. "So will I," he agreed, and he gave a gentle push to steer Daniel into the infirmary.
"I still never got to see manual dialing," Daniel said, and he actually sounded disappointed.
"Some other time," Jack said, rolling his eyes behind Daniel's back.
From the next chapter (" Family Ties"):
"So," Jack said, "we're talking about...Crazy Grandpa Ballard?"