Journeys (5c/5)
Title: Journeys (Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Part I a b Part II a b c d Part III a b c d e Part IV a b c d Part V a b
28 June 2003; SGC, Earth; 1000 hrs
They reached Earth, returned to the SGC, and sent Skaara home, and by the time Teal'c brought Rak'nor back to help, Carter and Daniel were still browsing through the records.
"I've gone through everything from the last four months," Daniel said when Jack found him there. "I'm going through outgoing wormholes, too, just to make sure, but there's nothing."
"Rak'nor's here," Jack told him. "Let's see if he has anything for us."
Daniel blinked, then stood quickly and ran into the briefing room.
By the time they caught up, Rak'nor was already staring at a hectic sketch. "...a ship being built," Daniel was saying. "It wasn't completed, but it was already in the air, so there must have been some sort of...floating...mechanism. Or maybe it was suspended on something..."
"Goa'uld ships are sometimes built on antigravity platforms," Carter suggested.
"That would work. I think most of the prisoners were refining naquadah for the construction."
Rak'nor raised his eyes from the sketch, looking alarmed. "I know the planet which you describe," he said. "Erebus." Teal'c stiffened, clearly recognizing the name as well.
"Erebus," Daniel repeated. "That sounds...pretty bad. It's from Greek mythology."
"Condemned souls pass through there after death," Jonas said, exchanging a grim look with him.
"Then it is aptly named," Rak'nor said. "The planet is used for the construction of hatak vessels and the purification of naquadah to build them. Only Jaffa prisoner labor is used--only they can stand the intense heat and toxic gases of the blast furnaces fed by underground volcanic systems. Eventually, even the Jaffa succumb."
"I am aware of such places," Teal'c said, nodding. "Where Jaffa prisoners of war unwilling to serve a new Goa'uld master are taken to be worked to death."
"Which would make it the perfect place to recruit rebels," Jonas said, "but something must have gone wrong."
"The planet was recently taken by Ba'al," Rak'nor said.
"That fits, too," Daniel said. "They were definitely Ba'al's forces."
Hammond nodded. "While you were away," he told them, "Korra of the Tok'ra told us that Yu lost control of the System Lords' alliance. Rumor has it that there was a lot of unrest, and Yu's own First Prime surrendered what he commanded of the armies to Ba'al, the strongest of the other System Lords."
"So now Ba'al is not only in control of the prison world where Bra'tac and Rya'c are stuck," Jack said, "but he's also in control of the four remaining Eyes."
"At least most Goa'uld ships aren't configured to use the Eyes properly," Daniel said absently as he filled in something on his sketch. "The circuits aren't designed to handle that much power."
Confused, Jack started to ask just how the hell he knew anything about Goa'uld circuitry or how the Eyes worked, but, to his surprise, Carter held out a hand to stop him before he could speak. "But if Ba'al knew how to use the Eyes," she said casually, though her gaze was intent, "he could build a ship that does support them."
Daniel shrugged. "He could be adapting that ship they're building on Erebus to handle...the...to handle..." Suddenly, he stopped and looked up. "What?"
"What?" Jack said.
But Carter was coiled tight with either excitement or anxiety. "Sirs, it's possible those slaves are building a ship that can use the Eyes as a weapon," she said. "Which means that the stakes just got higher--Rya'c and Bra'tac aside, we need to shut down construction on that ship."
"What?" Jack repeated. "Where did all of this come from?" Jonas pointed to Daniel's head. Daniel slapped his finger away. "Ah," he said.
Hammond had the resigned expression that meant he wasn't certain they were all sane, but he was going to go along with it, anyway. "Is it possible the four Eyes will actually be there?"
Jack turned to Daniel, who said defensively, "What?"
"It's possible, sir," Jack said. "If security on that planet is good enough, Ba'al could be keeping the Eyes there with the ship."
"The security is more than sufficient," Rak'nor said. "However, that makes this mission all but impossible."
"Why?" Daniel said.
"The chaapa'ai on Erebus is impenetrable," Rak'nor said. "A force field much like your iris blocks it, making attack or rescue through it impossible."
"Well, someone must get through somehow," Carter pointed out.
"We believe a signal must be used to lower the force field," Rak'nor said. At the edge of his sight, Jack saw Daniel twitch minutely, then close his eyes. "But we have no way of knowing what that signal is."
"Daniel?" Jack asked warily. This was the kind of crap he really hated to deal with, but after seeing various people turn into light or remember a symbiote's thoughts or tell the future or make things move with their minds...well, it wasn't something he was going to ignore, either.
Even as the others' attention fell on him, Daniel's eyes flew open. "The Alpha Site," he said, backing toward the stairs that lead toward the control room. "The incoming wormhole I was remembering...it wasn't to the SGC. They--they attacked the Jaffa guarding the 'gate. Bra'tac dialed the Alpha Site and sent a signal that lowered the force field--he must've been hoping to get through without having to worry about our iris, but they were recaptured first. But the deactivation signal might have gotten through."
"Major Carter, check the Alpha Site records," Hammond said.
"Yes, sir," Carter said, and sat back down at the computer, Daniel hovering impatiently behind her.
Rak'nor eyed Daniel in confusion, clearly with no idea what to make of this. "Long story," Jack said. "Not important right now."
"Come on, it has to be here!" Daniel snapped from the next room. Jack descended the stairs and joined them.
Carter held up a hand. "Just give me a minute," she said.
Jonas gave Jack an apprehensive look. "Now you know how we felt for five years," Jack said.
"Shh," Daniel told him.
"You don't even know what you're looking at," Jack answered, gesturing at the records scrolling rapidly down the screen.
"Sam does," he retorted.
Sure enough, Carter said, "Here. A coded energy signal was received and recorded through the Alpha Site 'gate three months ago. It was analyzed but no one was able to determine its origin or its purpose."
"It's the deactivation code for the force field," Daniel said confidently.
"Are you sure?" Carter asked.
"I am sure," Daniel insisted.
"I can synthesize this energy signature," she said. "So...I can get us through the 'gate on Erebus."
Teal'c turned to the general as Daniel added, "And I can provide details of the defenses."
"Do it," the general said, pointing back toward the briefing room. "I'll call in SG-3 to join you in the meantime. If you can find those Eyes and salvage them..."
"Could you teach us how to use them?" Jonas asked Daniel.
"No," Daniel said, frowning. "Why would I know that?" Jack raised his eyebrows. "I don't know. I have no idea."
"Getting them out of the System Lords' possession will be your first priority," the general decided. "Bring them back if you can. If you can't, destroy them."
...x...
"O'Neill," Teal'c said just before they all went through, "I wish to tell you that I believe I may be a liability on this mission."
"Still having problems with your shoulder?" Jack asked absently as he adjusted the gun in his grip.
"No," Teal'c said.
Jack looked up, hoping this would turn out to be some kind of twisted joke, which, of course, it was not. "You're not a liability, Teal'c."
"If I should die, it is my wish that you watch over Rya'c," Teal'c said insistently.
It was only because Teal'c seemed so dead serious that Jack said, "Well...let's see it doesn't come to that."
...x...
28 June 2003; Erebus; 2300 hrs
Jack had wondered, sometimes, how Daniel had been able to sit there and watch Ba'al torture him and not do anything.
Logically, fine, he got it now. The Others would've rained some serious mayhem on them, but Daniel wasn't someone who did logical things in emotional situations like that. He hadn't been, anyway, until he'd Ascended and apparently decided that he couldn't justify allowing certain ends to pass, no matter what the means. Jack decided it was another reason to be pissed off at the Others, and sometimes he wondered which Daniel they'd sent back--the one who would ruthlessly order untrained boys into battle, knowing he was sending them to die, or the one who would act impulsively, sometimes stupidly, in the name of justice.
It wasn't right. Jack had trained Daniel to accept those kinds of decisions when necessary, but making that call had never been Daniel's job; it was Jack's.
As they crouched in the dark, somewhere in the distance, Teal'c muffled a grunt of pain. "Colonel..." Jonas breathed from one side of him.
"Quiet," Jack ordered.
"Sir," Carter said, crawling back toward them from her side of the ridge.
"Hold your position," Jack whispered harshly.
"We're just going to sit here?" Daniel whispered from the other side, his gaze boring into Jack as they heard the sound of the whip again.
You just sat there, Jack thought. You should know exactly how I feel. "Yes," he said. "We're just going to sit here til we can find another way in." He wasn't too worried about Carter and Daniel--they might not like it, but they knew it was sometimes necessary to sit back even when a friend was being tortured if it meant a way out for all of them. They'd learned that the hard way on Bedrosia. Jonas was the wild card here, and for all Jack had come to trust in the man's abilities and even his judgment, he was still inexperienced when it came to direct combat.
Well. Everyone had to learn sometime.
Jonas twitched and braced himself when the whip whistled through the air again, as if waiting for a scream that never came.
As Jack looked around, searching for another way, Carter said quietly, "They've sent a search party. They must suspect more of us--especially if they recognize Teal'c."
"We'll just have to stay out of sight, then," Jack said absently.
"We need a distraction," Jonas said. "Set off a bunch of grenades or something and then run in and grab Teal'c. And we can use that as a distraction to take out the mothership."
To Jack's surprise, it was Daniel who said, "Not yet."
"Not yet?" Jonas said, his expression accusing. He might be friendly with Daniel, but they hadn't fought beside each other before.
"Not while they're literally holding onto Teal'c," Daniel snapped back, glaring at Jonas as if to say that no one had better even hint that he would have said that if there had been a better way. "Wait until they stop and leave him for morning. That's when we move."
Jack winced as the whip fell again. "Yeah," he agreed, "but we still need a distraction. Grenades aren't gonna cut it. I was thinking of something"--a glint caught his eye, and he turned to see the half-completed mothership hovering in the air. "...bigger. Anyone have an idea what security's gonna be like on that ship?"
Carter shook her head. "Probably a few ground troops, an alarm of some sort if we break in. Even if not, if we can cause enough damage to raise an alarm, it'll be pretty distracting, sir."
Looking around, Jack counted the people he had with them and said, "All right, you three"--he pointed to Carter, Jonas, and Daniel--"head toward the ship as soon as they're done with Teal'c. Look for any Eyes and then give us that distraction. We'll cover you on your way back. SG-3, spread out and set up along this ridge."
XXXXX
29 June 2003; Erebus; 0600 hrs
"All right," Sam whispered, checking once more to make sure there really were exactly two Jaffa guarding the ring transporter under the mothership. She gestured for Daniel and Jonas to join her and waited until she heard both sets of soft footsteps approach. She held up a hand to signal to them behind her, 'On three. Me left; you right. One--'
A zat gun discharged just to the left of her, and another right over her head. The two Jaffa dropped to the ground.
Sam jumped, whirling around, then glared when she saw Daniel retracting his zat and Jonas looking guilty. "We counted," Daniel whispered, pointing between himself and Jonas. "You weren't looking."
Jonas gave her a grin, then moved past both of them and bent to find the ring activation device from one of the fallen Jaffa.
The colonel was going to go nuts with these two. Daniel had been bad enough on his own, but this was getting ridiculous now that he'd found a coconspirator, and it was only going to encourage Jonas to start stretching the rules more. In fact...
At the moment, the two of them were digging through the Jaffa's armor, each furiously searching one of the two fallen guards. "What--what are you...?" Sam said, raising her gun to watch their backs, since they were clearly too busy to watch anything that wasn't in front of their noses.
"One of us is supposed to stay here and keep watch while the other one goes with you," Jonas explained, wrinkling his nose as he reached past his Jaffa's breastplate.
"Where's the activator?" Daniel said. "Ah--dammit, my watch is stuck in his armor--"
"Got it!" Jonas said, standing and raising the ring device. "I'm going in."
"Damn," Daniel repeated and finally extracted his hand from behind a plate of retractable armor. "Fine, I'll stand guard. Hand it over."
"What is wrong with you two?" Sam hissed. "This isn't a game!"
Daniel turned toward her, all trace of friendly competition gone. One of the Jaffa on the ground began to stir. Before Sam could move, Daniel raised his zat and shot the man a second time. Jonas jumped a little, staring at the corpse.
"We know that," Daniel said, then tucked away his zat and pulled his P90 around into his hands.
Sam gaped at him for a moment, trying to quash that feeling she'd kept having recently, the one that said something had been just a little off about Daniel ever since he'd come back from his stint as an Ascended being. They didn't have time to explore it now, though, so she took a breath and stepped onto the ring platform. Jonas joined her and wordlessly tossed the device at Daniel.
"If we don't contact you in fifteen seconds, assume we were caught," she said. "Stay sharp."
With a nod, Daniel stepped back, already taking off his pack, and activated the rings.
The white light of the ring transporter faded around them. Footsteps clanked toward them, and she ducked into a side passageway, checking to make sure Jonas had found cover before pressing herself against the wall.
A line of Jaffa walked past them. Sam waited until they were gone, then gestured for Jonas to follow. "We're in," she said.
"Good luck," Daniel answered in their ears.
"The Eyes should be near the engine room," she said. Unless they were otherwise locked up, but they'd worry about that if the first try failed. "This way?"
Jonas squinted, calling to mind the dozens of ship layouts particular to each System Lord that he'd memorized, then whispered, "This isn't standard design. It's new."
Sam looked around, picturing what the ship looked like from the outside and trying to decide which way made most sense--where the best place for centralized circuits would be, where security would be tightest on a lackadaisically guarded ship, where power had to be drawn from... "Let's try this way."
The corridors were sparsely manned, apparently under the assumption that the shield on the 'gate would hold most enemies at bay. Despite a wrong turn, it didn't take long for them to find the weapons control panels next to the control room.
Sam looked around the control room. "I can't believe they're not guarding this place--" she started, stepping inside, then had to clench her jaw around a yell of pain as a force shield threw her back with a loud thump.
"Sam Sam Sam, c'mon," Jonas whispered, grabbing her by the arm and helping her up. "Someone must've heard that."
They had just ducked back behind a bulwark when a line of Jaffa ran past. Sam took a deep breath and tried to rub feeling back into her tingling arms. She peeked out and saw one of the Jaffa pull out a handheld device, deactivate the shield, and walk inside the room. Four--no, five Jaffa, and footsteps coming around the corner...
From the other side of the wall they were hiding behind, Jonas waved frantically at her.
'Eyes,' he mouthed, then pointed into the room. Sam peeked out again, but couldn't see from her angle. 'Panel,' Jonas mouthed, nodding to show that he was very certain. 'Behind.' He raised his gun a few inches and raised his eyebrows in question.
Sam's hand clenched on her weapon, too--the shield was down now, which made this the perfect time for them to get in--but then dropped it and shook her head. They were too outnumbered to do anything but keep out of sight. Stay down, she signaled. Jonas nodded and lowered his gun.
One of the Jaffa barked an order. Sam heard the sound of buttons being pressed, and then the distinctive, metallic footsteps stomped away again. She looked around the bulwark, saw no one, and finally stepped out. "What'd they say?" she whispered.
"The Eyes are safe," Jonas answered, looking anxiously into the control room. "They're starting a sweep of the ship for any intruders. Sam, if we can bring down the force shield..."
Sam looked around for the panel that controlled the shield. She hesitated before touching it, but then realized that, if they lacked experience in direct confrontation against Ba'al, Ba'al also lacked it against them. A Jaffa intruder or rebellious slave would try to enter a sealed room by force; SG personnel had learned to work around Goa'uld force by either stealth or engineering.
She quickly pulled the panel out of the wall, smiling grimly when it came out with little resistance and no additional alarm. "They're routing a lot of power to here," she said, studying the circuit. "It'll take some time to--"
The faint sound of gunfire came through her earpiece. "Daniel?" Jonas said, alarmed.
"I'm fine," Daniel said, whispering. "Just a stray patrol, but hurry. More Jaffa will have heard that."
Sam bit back a curse. "Daniel, we've found the Eyes. If I get them back to the SGC, can you remember how to use them?"
"I don't know."
"Guess!"
There was a pause, and then, "Can you destroy them?"
But they're powerful Goa'uld technology, she wanted to say. We could learn so much from them. Instead, she said, "I think we can, but I'd rather not. Can you keep any patrols off our backs?"
"Sam," Daniel said, his voice tense, "you should just destroy them. I probably won't remember anything about them, anyway."
She grimaced, but they were on a timetable here and Teal'c was hurt, so she reached into her bag for enough C-4 to make as big a hole as possible around here. "Okay--stand by," she told Daniel, then released the talk button. "Pull out the power regulator and try to overload the shields," she said to Jonas, pointing to the right panel as she started planting explosives. "With luck, that alone will take out a lot in the control room; if not, it should at least work as a primer for the C-4, and that'll should do the trick."
Jonas squinted at the panel in the dark as Sam pressed plastique into the walls, as close as she could get to the room without touching the shield again. By the time she turned around, Jonas was replacing the panel in the wall. "That should give us a few minutes," he said. "I say five at most, less if they turn on some of these systems. If that blows a big enough hole, we might not even need to get rid of the antigravity panel."
"Let's hope so, 'cause I don't think we've got time to find the antigravity controls," she said. A few minutes, he'd estimated, and without time to check his work, she accepted the guess and set her watch for three minutes.
They had to hide from two more groups of passing guards as they went, and by the time they had almost reached the ring transporter, there was barely a minute left. Just as they'd almost reached the platform, though, another line of guards came into view. This time, they didn't leave--Sam counted six Jaffa, all standing at the ready by the rings.
"This could be a problem," she murmured. A glance over her shoulder showed Jonas crouched at the other wall, his expression asking her what to do next. Her watch said that the power feedback loop had been set two and a half minutes ago. They couldn't just wait it out--she had no idea to gauge just how big the explosion (or explosions) would be when it went, so they had to be as far away as possible and definitely not on the ship itself.
Six against two was bad odds, even with the Jaffa mostly pinned at the end of a corridor--there was still one passageway going off in either direction where they could take cover, and as soon as a fight started, reinforcements wouldn't be far behind. If they could be sure that all six Jaffa would stay relatively clustered in one place, though, more than they were now, then automatic gunfire might win over the slower staff weapons.
Actually...
If someone came up the rings unannounced, the Jaffa would turn their weapons onto the platform, which meant that they'd all have to stand facing the same way to avoid each other's fire. More than that, they'd stand with their backs to Sam and Jonas, hoping to pin any enemies against the wall on the other side, not knowing that there were SG personnel in the open corridor behind them.
"Daniel, what's your situation?" Sam said quietly.
"I'm waiting," he answered. "What's going on?"
"On my word, I want an empty ring activation," she said, so quietly she had to hope he could decipher her whispered words. "Follow in five seconds. You'll arrive in the middle of a firefight. I count six hostile Jaffa, so stay low--get out of the way. Stand facing camp so you'll come up facing us with your back to the hull. Do you copy?"
"Solid copy," Daniel answered smartly, with the almost-careless tone in the face of mortal peril that the colonel had never been able to drill out of him. "Face camp; dummy ring activation; five count; then ring up and move. Say the word, Sam."
Sam let herself smile--this felt just like any of a dozen training scenarios they'd gone through together--then squashed it as she pulled her focus back, moved her finger into her trigger guard and looked back again. Jonas raised his gun and nodded once.
"Jonas, don't think," Daniel added. "Don't try to wound. You aim and shoot to kill."
"Got it," Jonas whispered, focusing hard on the end of the corridor.
Only when she heard the quick exchange did Sam wonder if that seemingly-childish scramble for the ring activation device back on the ground had been exactly for this reason--Jonas didn't know Daniel's style in battle but trusted his reputation; all Daniel knew was that Jonas winced when someone got shot and hadn't been carrying live firearms in the field for very long. Maybe he'd been trying to protect the newer member of the team, and that was just too much to think about while they were on a ship with live explosives ticking down.
Sam brought her gun to her shoulder and ordered, "Now."
The rings activated.
"Kree lo'sek!" one Jaffa called, and, as Sam had hoped, they gathered together, facing the empty rings.
"...two...three..." Daniel counted in their ears.
Sam shot the first man in the back. Another fell at the same time--courtesy of Jonas, who fired more bullets but made sure at least a few struck home--and she moved to the next target, assessing the scene as she did. "Daniel, move left immediately," she ordered over the sound of her gun--the Jaffa still standing had spun around once they realized someone was behind them, and they were taking cover in a side passageway.
"Five!"
The rings activated again. As a Jaffa started to turn, Sam stuck her head deliberately out into the corridor, opening fire and hoping to draw their attention just a little longer. Of the three Jaffa left, one of them was too well-hidden to hit, but from her angle, she managed to wound one more before scrambling back.
"Check fire!" she called to Jonas, watching for Daniel.
Daniel appeared and immediately threw himself to the side, taking himself out of Sam and Jonas's line of fire ("Now," she ordered, raising her gun again) and already returning fire back into the other side passage. Sam saw the one Jaffa out of her range drop. Jonas took the last one as she hurried forward and saw Daniel stand and finish off the man she'd wounded earlier.
"Sam..." Jonas said, running behind her. "It's gonna go any second now!"
"Get on the platform!" Daniel called, already there. "I hear more coming this way--"
She pushed his head down and stood guard over him as he reset the ring activation device. "Not yet..." she said. Jonas skidded into them, turning as he did to aim at a Jaffa guard following them. "Go!"
They landed back outside. "They'll be right behind us!" Daniel hissed, already running toward the ridge opposite where Colonel O'Neill and SG-3 were.
"Run, run, head for camp!" she told him, urging him forward with her fingertips and glancing back once to make sure Jonas was right behind. The sound of rings activating came from behind him, and Sam grabbed his arm and gave it a tug. "Follow Daniel," she told him, exchanging places with him at the rear to aim at the Jaffa appearing on the ring platform.
Still moving backward as fast as she could while holding her gun steady, she squeezed the trigger, just enough to make the Jaffa scatter near the ship and give her time to turn and try to outrun them.
An alarm sounded on the ship. The Jaffa in the camp turned almost as one toward the commotion. A few turned and started up the ridge to investigate.
"Carter, was that you?" Colonel O'Neill's voice said through her earpiece.
Reminded of other times when they'd had to hijack Goa'uld systems to cause an explosion, Sam sped up and keyed the radio. "Here it comes, sir. Daniel, Jonas, it's--"
The explosion made her duck, looking up immediately as her companions stumbled but kept going.
She glanced back to see the entire mothership wobble in midair, smoke rising from a hole in the hull and debris floating madly, held in place by the antigravity platform. The Jaffa slavers dropped what they were doing and sprinted toward the wreckage, yelling orders.
"Keep moving, faster," Sam said, still following Daniel and Jonas as they ran along the ridge, but Jaffa were running out in every direction now, including theirs, and in five seconds there was going to be more than a handful of hostiles in range of them. "Colonel, request cover fire now--"
The Jaffa party closest to reaching them exploded.
"Have at 'em, boys!" Colonel O'Neill whooped. Sam reached the top of their side of the ridge and dropped down next to Daniel, Jonas crouching on her other side. Turning briefly toward SG-3 and the colonel on the far side of the camp, she saw a mortar in place, still firing shells.
Below them, there was a full-fledged melee breaking out. Teal'c and Rak'nor--or maybe Bra'tac and Rya'c--must have rallied the prisoners to fight back. "Clean targets," she reminded, raising her gun. "We've got a lot of friendlies."
She found her first target and fired, not pausing to see if he was dead or only wounded before she moved on. Just as she was about to try another, a bullet struck from the other side--she glanced up to see Colonel O'Neill in the distance, his gun already trained on someone else.
When nothing sounded on either side of her, though, she remembered that she was with Daniel and Jonas, not Teal'c and the colonel. Daniel looked like he'd picked out a target but wasn't sure enough to shoot, while Jonas's finger wasn't even near his trigger. Neither of them was even close to being a confident sniper at this distance with so many rebel Jaffa clustered around.
"Daniel, take the ones who get separated from the rebels," she ordered, snapping her fingers to catch their attention and pointing at a few who looked like they were trying to flee up the ridge. "Jonas, double back to the ship, make sure no one comes at us from there."
Immediately, Jonas stood and ran back toward the ship. Daniel dropped more comfortably into his crouch and shifted his aim, and this time, his bullets sounded beside hers.
By the time she finally found Teal'c through her scope, he was already standing over the dead body of the Jaffa who had been beating him the night before. Sam allowed herself a moment to be relieved that he was upright--that was always a good sign. Bra'tac and Rya'c joined him, all three of them wielding staff weapons, and Sam turned to search for another target.
"Sam, it's me," Daniel said, and she was still so used to the tone that she didn't even think of twitching away when his hand touched her back to warn her he was doing something, then snaked around to take extra ammunition from her. Shifting slightly to help when the magazine caught on her belt seemed so natural it was almost as if they'd drilled shoulder-to-shoulder just yesterday, not a year and a half ago.
"No one's alive that way," Jonas said, a little breathless, as he ran back to them. "Ship's clean."
"Carter, get the evacuation started," Colonel O'Neill said.
Sam eyed the chaos under them and didn't move, instead raising her gun again to continue helping from here. "Jonas, dial the Alpha Site, send the code, and warn them we've got incoming. Daniel, round up the Jaffa, then catch up to Jonas."
Both of them slithered away from her. She took her eye away from the camp long enough to see Daniel covering Jonas as he ran past the enemy and toward the Stargate.
"Jaffa!" Daniel yelled, barely loud enough over the noise. He ran closer. "Re--" He paused to duck a staff blast, then immediately returned fire.
But Teal'c must have heard, because he took over, his voice easily carrying with decades of experience as a field commander. "Kree Jaffa!" he yelled as Sam left her position and ran toward Daniel. "Re hano Tau'ri! Rak'nor!"
"Re hano Tau'ri!" Rak'nor repeated, and ran from his post to lead the Jaffa toward Daniel.
"Bradio!" Daniel called, slipping into the Goa'uld-English-Abydonian hybrid he often used with Teal'c. "Teal'c, we'll cover you--krel lak, nok!"
Sam saw Teal'c push Rya'c toward the crowd of fleeing Jaffa before she reached a position opposite Daniel. Most of the hostiles left were trying to retreat more than anything--there were still bullets raining on them, and plenty of the prisoners weren't content to stop short of revenge in favor of running.
Waiting for Teal'c, Bra'tac, and Rya'c to stagger past them, she planted herself at the back of the line of rebels. "Daniel, go," she ordered, turning back to the camp to make sure no one followed.
"Yes, ma'am," he said absently before he sprinted off and let her watch his back. She could get used to this.
...x...
Jonas was supporting Teal'c gingerly by the arm as Rya'c stumbled toward a waiting stretcher to lower Bra'tac onto it.
"Teal'c?" Sam said as she stepped out onto the ramp in the SGC.
"I will be fine," Teal'c said tiredly.
General Hammond looked around, waiting for Colonel O'Neill to walk out of the wormhole as well before he said, "Welcome back, SG-1."
"The camp has been liberated," the colonel reported, waving at the sergeant in the window to stop holding the 'gate open. The iris closed, and the wormhole fizzled away. "The prisoners followed SG-3 back to the Alpha Site."
"They are anxious to join the rebellion," Rak'nor added, looking satisfied.
Bra'tac raised his head before Janet could order someone to wheel him away. "Then my mission was a success," he said. "Hammond of Texas--it seems I am once again in your debt."
Hammond smiled. "I think it's Mr. Jackson you owe on this one," he said.
Daniel froze in the middle of handing his gun to an airman. "Indeed," Teal'c said, glancing first at Rya'c and nodding once. Daniel looked at Sam, then turned back to Teal'c and bowed very slightly in answer.
The Jaffa walked (or were forced) toward the infirmary. "I've already sent a message to Abydos," Hammond said when SG-1 tried to follow. "I expect someone will be here to take you back and finish up there in less than ten hours."
Sam blinked. She'd all but forgotten that they'd been in the middle of another mission when a memory had kicked them into this one. By the expressions on the others' faces, they were thinking the same.
"Ah...right, sir," the colonel said. "Abydos. Well...Teal'c should probably sit this one out."
"They should be finishing up on Abydos before too long," Hammond said. "I'm sure Teal'c won't mind a little rest."
"Yes, sir," the colonel said.
"Why don't you go talk to him in the infirmary," the general suggested. "Dr. Fraiser has some supplies to send back to Abydos, too. Mr. Jackson, I need to speak with you before you go."
Daniel nodded. "Yes, sir," he said, and followed the general to his office.
Sam glanced back at him once, then followed the rest of them to the infirmary. "Everyone else okay?" she asked.
"Yup," Jonas said, fairly bouncing along the hallway, despite being exhausted and out of breath.
"Now what are you smiling about?" the colonel said, turning to him.
Jonas beamed. "Blew up my first mothership," he said happily. Sam rolled her eyes but couldn't help returning his grin.
XXXXX
29 June 2003; SGC, Earth; 1200 hrs
"You're not injured, Mr. Jackson?" the general said as they stepped inside the office.
"No, sir," Daniel said. He hesitated for a moment, then amended the report Jack had quickly given between Teal'c's wounds and incoming Jaffa refugees. "The Eyes were destroyed, but we should consider returning to Erebus for other mineral and technology salvage. But if we're going to do it, it should be soon. I wouldn't be surprised if Ba'al had already been alerted."
"I'd rather wait until we have more intel from the Jaffa who were there, but I'll keep that in mind." The general sat down at his desk and gestured for Daniel to take a seat, too. "I must admit that it was good to see some of your enthusiasm back, in spite of the unfortunate circumstances. You did well. But you know what I have to ask now."
"I'm not staying on Abydos," Daniel said.
He was surprised when the words slipped out. They had won this time, but there would be a next time, and if he stayed on Abydos, he would spend the rest of his life wondering what he was missing. He could imagine little worse than being unable to act for the rest of his existence.
General Hammond seemed surprised, if not by his agreement, then at least by how quickly it had come. "I'm very glad to hear that," he said, "but, at the risk of convincing you otherwise, I want to emphasize that this is not a decision to take lightly. I don't want you to make a decision about your home that you'll regret once you've regained all your memories."
"I'm not taking it lightly," Daniel said, then, oddly, found himself smiling. "Have we had this conversation before, General?"
The general gave him a small smile in return. "Yes, we have, son. But this time, it'll be more permanent. Abydos is not far from Earth, but interstellar travel is new to us. It'll be a long time before ships can be used for anything not directly related to our own defense. Abydos will have no quick way of contacting us and no guarantee that we could reach them, much less help them, even with a long-range communicator--we've had the Prometheus for months, and it's already spent most of that time damaged or in enemy control."
"I understand that Earth has to be your first priority, sir."
"And if we want to make sure no Goa'uld chooses to look too hard at Abydos again, then communications should be kept to a minimum. There may be opportunities for you to return in the future, and travel from here to Abydos would certainly be more likely than the reverse. But without a Stargate, and with Anubis such a threat, that's not something I can guarantee, do you understand?"
"Yes, sir," Daniel said, a hollow pit opening somewhere in his gut. He nodded.
"All right," the general said. He eyed Daniel for a moment longer. "That doesn't bother you?"
"I might remember something else," Daniel said. "Something urgent, or a...a clue about the Lost City. I'm always going to think of something, and I can't just... I'm not sure what's left for me there."
"Then I hope we'll be able to help you stay comfortably here, possibly even off-base," the general said. "This is your planet, too--you have a right to it."
"Thank you, but I think I'd rather stay on base for now," Daniel said. "Until I'm sure of what I know and what I don't."
"There would be a few snarls in letting you live off-base," the general admitted. "Nyan was only able to move away because he's not involved in this business anymore, and there are still people keeping an eye on him. You're too well-known to those of us who know about the Stargate, and it's hard enough keeping SGC life secret from the rest of the world even without being alien."
"I understand," Daniel said distractedly. "Sir--Nyan? Is he...?"
"He's about to start his second year of graduate school," the general said with a small smile. "He and Dr. David Jordan are both still in occasional contact with us--having them and a few others as contacts in the academic world helps our archaeologists solidify their cover."
"Wow," Daniel said, impressed and a little disappointed that he hadn't been there to see his friend off. "That's...that's great."
"He took your place on the team--I think it was partly in your memory," the general said.
Daniel grimaced. "I heard, and no disrespect intended, sir, but he must have hated it."
"I think he did. He handed SG-1 off to Jonas as soon as he could."
"Jonas seems to have taken to it."
"Yes, he has," the general said. Daniel hadn't meant that as anything but a comment, but he felt himself growing tense even so, as if a decision would be made concerning the two of them now. "But so did you, and I'm in no rush to separate any part of SG-1."
Relieved, Daniel nodded. "Thank you. Sir, I need to get ready. The teltak will be here in hours, and we still need to have our checkups..."
"Go ahead," the general said. "If you want my advice, take advantage of these next few days. You'll always have things you regret; don't let one of them be that you didn't spend enough time with your family while you had the chance."
...x...
5 July 2003; Kalima, Abydos; 1900 hrs
Jack had some funny ideas about marriages.
"What did he think was going to happen?" Skaara said that night, after they'd helped Seinah move her belongings into the place Skaara had made his home and most of the village had gone to bed.
Daniel shrugged. "His people often have a ceremony with flowers and promises, and an exchange of rings." Jack didn't seem to have noticed the bands that Skaara and Seinah had tied around each others' wrists; it was more practical than a loop around their fingers where it would easily fall off while working, Daniel thought.
Skaara leaned back against the support outside of his tent, where they sat shoulder-to-shoulder on the ground. "You're leaving in the morning," he said. Daniel looked at his hands and nodded. Skaara made a noise almost like a laugh. "You just came back."
"If I can come back from being dead, coming back from a few light years away shouldn't be too hard," Daniel pointed out, but he didn't look up as he said it.
"Sha'uri worries about you," Skaara said.
"Sha'uri worries," Daniel corrected.
Skaara made a face. "A few light years?" he said.
"Well...I don't know how many light years," Daniel admitted. "But it's not that far. A few hours away, Skaara--that's all."
Skaara pulled his knees up to his chest. "We used to have adventures together."
"We used to be children," Daniel reminded him. "You have a wife now."
"And you have...what?" Skaara said. "A duty? A war to fight?"
"I might still come back," Daniel insisted, because he wasn't completely sure yet what he did have on Earth, other than his friends and the war into which he had thoroughly entwined himself.
"The last time you said that, you came back to die," Skaara said.
Daniel opened his mouth to say that that wasn't fair--it wasn't as if he'd wanted to get himself killed--but he couldn't deny that it was still true. "I'm leaving soon," he finally said. "I don't know when I'll see you next. I don't want to fight with you."
With a sigh, Skaara reached across and looped an arm around Daniel's shoulders. "Do you remember everything now?" he asked. "I don't want you to go without remembering how you grew up."
"I remember enough," Daniel said, though there were very few things and people he did remember. Still, this world and its people had mattered to him, and that was something he knew in his core.
He reached into his pocket. "Tau'ri warriors sometimes wear these," Daniel said, holding out a survival bracelet with a button from his own fatigues sewn onto the end, like the one Sam wore as a reminder of those who had yet to return home and the ones who never would. "They don't take it off until everyone from their team returns."
Skaara accepted the tightly woven band of paracord and tugged on it experimentally. "This is strong rope," he commented.
"It is," Daniel said. "It's useful."
"Then I will wear it until you return," Skaara said, and fastened it around his wrist, even though they both knew it might be a case of if rather than when.
"We're leaving the long-range communicator. Do you remember how the power generator works and how to code a message?"
"I do," Skaara said. He sighed. "We have lived through exciting times, Dan'yel. That is enough for me. But you were always restless--this is what you were meant to do."
"Don't use it too often," Daniel made himself say, looking at the ground. "Save the generator for emergencies--if it becomes too cold one season, perhaps, I'm sure you and Sha'uri can find a way to use it to make heat. If you know how to replace the naquadah in the generator..."
"We will learn."
"And if you see a ship, hide in the caves and call us."
Skaara was quiet for a moment. "Tau'ri ships are different from Goa'uld, are they not?"
"Not all of Tau'ri is SGC, and some of them do not work with us. Even if it's not a Goa'uld ship, don't come out of here until they leave or someone you recognize finds you in Kalima."
"What should we teach our children?" Skaara said. "Do we lie and say there is nothing beyond Abydos, or that there is so much more and we fear to see it?"
Daniel shook his head. "It's not fear. Our people have to heal--not just from this attack, but from ten thousand years under the Goa'uld. Nothing stays hidden forever, and you should not allow it to. But next time, when another world meets Abydos..."
"We will be ready," Skaara said. "For good or bad."
"If anything important happens," Daniel promised, "we'll send a message. I will come back one day." He stood and helped his brother to his feet, then pushed him gently toward the house. "This is your life now, Skaara. Go to your wife. Be happy."
"You also deserve to be happy," Skaara said before he went in. "I don't want to receive a message that says you were killed."
"Nothing makes me happier than knowing Abydos is safe," Daniel said. Happiness was one thing; satisfaction was another. 'Satis,' after all, simply meant 'enough.' "Take care of our people," Daniel said. "That is enough."
...x...
6 July 2003; SGC, Earth; 2000 hrs
"...so we loaded up as much naquadah as we'd managed to strip away, and here we are," Daniel told Teal'c once they were back on base.
"Are you all right?" Teal'c asked. Rya'c and Bra'tac had already left again with Rak'nor. Teal'c himself was nearly healed now and was sitting in preparation for kelno'reem.
Daniel nodded, folding his legs under himself. "This is where I should be," he said. "I feel like I belong here, more than I've ever belonged anywhere else."
There were still moments of uncertainty--when he wondered if he was at the SGC because of the potential for novelty or because it had become 'normal'--but he had no doubt that this was what he was now. The one thing he did remember about Ascension that he had never told anyone--and probably would never tell--was the clear feeling that he was going to be torn apart by frustration, by the constant wish that what he had to do didn't clash with what he shouldn't do. At least here, at the SGC and as part of SG-1, he could live somewhat freer of that.
"I should be asking you if you're all right," Daniel said.
Teal'c tilted his head. "I believe," he said, "that this is the place where I, too, belong."
"Well, good," Daniel said. "But mostly I meant physically. You took, uh...quite a beating."
With a smile, Teal'c said, "Do not be concerned. I will be ready for our next mission."
"I missed this," Daniel confided. "Just sitting here and having someone to talk to."
"You cannot know how much I have also missed these times," Teal'c said quietly.
Daniel looked back down at the candle closest to his feet. "I wrote about a lot of things in my journals, but the parts about my parents' death aren't very thorough," he said, aware that Teal'c had completely stopped moving. "As it turns out, I don't remember that day anymore--that memory starts with waking up on Chulak--but I'm pretty sure that omission was intentional, and I can only think of one reason for it. We've never talked about that day in detail, have we?"
"We have not," Teal'c said. "I believe you deliberately chose not to do so--it may be that you yourself did not remember the day clearly enough."
"I think I did but didn't want to say it. It's true, though, isn't it? What happened to them, and...and your involvement?"
"Yes," Teal'c said. His gaze wavered for a bit, then fixed firmly on Daniel. "Whether or not I was the one who held the weapon that caused their deaths does not change my responsibility."
"Yeah, that conversation I remember," Daniel said. He looked up and found Teal'c looking uncertain. "I just wanted to know, Teal'c. It doesn't change anything."
"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said carefully, "I killed the man who murdered my father."
Why did you not do the same? was the unspoken question, but, rather than point out the obvious--Daniel wasn't Teal'c and Teal'c wasn't Daniel--he said, "I know. I helped."
"I have never understood why you forgave me," Teal'c said.
In the beginning, it might have been a matter of necessity--he had latched onto whomever he could during a difficult time in a strange world. But even then, there had been more to it. Leaning forward, Daniel said, "I guess...it wasn't personal. You shot the people aiming weapons at you and your men; you weren't specifically trying to kill them. I knew the choices you'd made, and it's part of what makes you who you are. If I can accept everything else you've done in your life under Apophis, however terrible, then I have to accept that, too."
"You are under no such obligation," Teal'c said.
"We're a long way past obligation," Daniel said. The Goa'uld and their armies had killed his parents; Teal'c had been part of those forces but had turned, and now he was part of SG-1 and their team. There were things they all locked away in the back of their minds because they couldn't keep thinking about them if they wanted to survive, and if this was one of those things, it was one Daniel had carefully examined and then put firmly aside. The past was past; this was what mattered now.
"I see," Teal'c said. He finally returned the smile and bowed his head.
"One day," Daniel said, "when the System Lords really are defeated, will you..."
Teal'c waited for a while, then said, "What is it?"
"Never mind," Daniel said, shaking his head. "I was going to ask if you'd go back to your family or...but there's no point asking now, yeah? We don't know yet."
"Precisely," Teal'c said, nodding solemnly, then closed his eyes. Daniel decided to take that as a hint and scooted back until he was leaning against the edge of Teal'c's bed and opened his journal to write quietly until Teal'c had finished meditating.
"I won't," he said a minute later. "I don't think I'd go back if the time came to choose. Not if it meant staying there."
Teal'c didn't answer for a long time. Daniel had almost finished his final entry about Abydos when he heard, "I may return to my people when the time comes."
"Your people might still need you," Daniel answered, raising his eyes to find Teal'c watching him. "We understand. We hope it happens, in a way, because it'll mean the Jaffa rebellion is going somewhere."
"You told me once, in my dream, that I was the only one who could decide what my path would be," Teal'c said. Daniel straightened, knowing that this was something that had been very important to his friend. "It may be that we--all of us--will eventually choose different paths."
Daniel shrugged, a little uncomfortable. "I'm glad to share the journey for now, though."
Teal'c smiled. "You told me that, also."
"Oh. Well, at least I'm consistent." He skimmed over what he had written, looking for details he might have left out--every detail needed to be recorded now that memory might no longer serve--and closed the journal. "But if you rejoin the Jaffa, we'll visit."
He wondered when it was that Teal'c had started smiling more. He wished a little bit that he had been here to see it, but he liked how comfortably the expression now sat on Teal'c's face.
XXXXX
It wasn't until the second time Jack invited him to his house that Daniel found himself missing a home he didn't remember--missing, mostly, the memories he would never call back to mind.
Jack found him on the roof after midnight. "Hello," Jack said, pulling up a chair and lowering himself into it with a groan.
"Your knees are worse," Daniel commented. He'd rarely noticed before--it had simply been part of Jack. Daniel had spent his years at the SGC growing older, but he hadn't thought much about the fact that everyone else--like Jack--would be getting older, too.
"Had another surgery while you were gone," Jack told him, settling more comfortably into his seat. "Before Nyan, the ninth guy to try out for your spot screwed up off-world. He got a dart in the butt, though," he added, sounding like he took far too much pleasure in that fact.
"Ninth," Daniel echoed, shaking his head. He didn't say any more, though; he couldn't imagine running through a line of men and women who tried to replace Teal'c or Sam. "Are you okay?"
"Ah," Jack said, waving a hand. "No big deal. Knees. Back. You'd better enjoy it for the next ten years or so--it only goes downhill from there."
"You're not that old, Jack," Daniel said.
Jack shrugged. "I can still do the job. You out here for a reason?"
"Can we see Abydos's system from here?" Daniel asked, nodding toward the starlit sky.
"You asked me that before," Jack said.
Daniel remembered then that the answer had been 'no.' "Right." He folded his arms around himself, though it was a warm night. "I missed it. I wanted to go home so badly."
Jack nodded. He tilted his chair back on its back legs, balancing with his feet braced against the railing at the edge of the roof. The legs slipped and scraped a little against the ground before he shifted to balance the weight better. "Yeah, you did."
"That's dangerous, Jack, don't do that," Daniel said, rolling his eyes when Jack deliberately looked at him and tilted back another few inches before dropping the chair back on all fours.
"Which one of us was the kid, again?" Jack said.
"I've always known that was you," he answered easily. Sometimes, it was so easy. "You're the ones who've lived under the delusion that you were more mature than I was."
"Hey," Jack returned, "I'm not the one sitting on a roof at two in the morning." Why are you up? his tone asked, though he didn't move to ask it aloud.
"Did I used to dream about my parents a lot?" Daniel asked.
Jack didn't quite hide a wince before he said, "I don't know. You didn't talk about it. Not to me, anyway."
"Yeah." When he had sought out anyone after a nightmare, it had usually been Teal'c--they had lived two doors from each other, and Teal'c had offered simple quiet and an occasional piece of calming advice. "I hate not knowing whether I'm remembering their voices or just imagining it."
Jack drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair, blowing his cheeks out and looking awkward. "What do they say?" he finally asked.
Daniel shrugged. "I don't know. It's like they're too far away. You know, I remember how much I loved my home, but I don't feel like I want to go back."
Jack was silent for a while. "It seems like you've remembered most of it from reading your journals," he said.
Shaking his head in frustration, Daniel tried to explain, "It's like hearing it second-hand." Like a blurry, gray, duplicate picture when he had had the original in full color and motion. "It's just facts. There's nothing pulling me back."
"Is that why you were so tense while we were there?"
"I was starting to remember about Erebus," Daniel said. "I don't think it was anything the Others did specifically; it just felt like there was something I had to do, and it wasn't on Abydos." That was how it would always be. He would always feel like there was something he had to do somewhere else, and so Abydos could never be 'home' again, not really.
"Huh," Jack said. "You saved them from Anubis, though. You saved their planet for them."
Daniel made a face. There was still a part of him that remembered, fiercely, how much he'd wanted to keep it safe and how much he'd loved his hometown and the people who had made him their own. It was like a dull ache that had been soothed by distance but could never quite go away, because it would always seem like an unfinished story in his mind. "But not for me."
"You were never doing it for you," Jack said, perhaps the only reassurance possible.
Daniel nodded, his throat tight. "Yeah," he managed. "Guess that's all that matters."
"You okay?" Jack said.
"Great," Daniel lied.
"Sure," Jack said, and sat with him without speaking until he was ready to return to bed.
Continued in part d...