Ghosts in the Machine (gen) PG-13 (2/5)
Ghosts in the Machine
By Jennghis Kahn
+ + +
[ lost grace ]
Jack had found a place. Without a compass, he’d only wandered the streets where he could still see the big circular building and use it for navigation. Coming upon a street that was long and straight enough to obscure its end, he’d set out warily down its narrow confines.
Teal’c had still had his watch, so Jack had borrowed it for this mission. An hour later, he began to notice something interesting. The dark metal dropped away and suddenly there were old structures made of wood and stone, reminding him of the quarantine area that had held Teal’c. They were just as abandoned as the rest of the city, but were run down and showed evidence of battle damage. They were reminders of a former way of life within the cold, stark technology. Although there was still an eery lack of trees or plants or animals and insects, this section was not nearly as inhuman.
Until now, the city had been laid out on a flat plain. It had been eerily even and distinct in its pattern. Now, he stood at the bottom of a hill and looked up at a glorious, octagonal, stained glass window. It was a mass of small, colorful geometric shapes. The building could have been an old temple of some kind. It certainly had a church-like feel to it, but there were no spires or symbols or anything that called people to worship, other than the big window that looked down over the city.
Inside, it was vast but seemed smaller with the heaps of rubble and junk that moldered in the open. He walked toward the window, awed by its color and presence even though the dark nature of the planet precluded a truly brilliant display were the sun to shine through it.
There was evidence that others had stayed here. Fire circles were burnt black into the floor, long dead by the looks of them. The floor was filled with footprints leading to and fro. Jack called out once and heard nothing stirring.
Just beneath the window there was a loft. Stairs rose up on either side of it and were sturdy enough to hold him. When he reached the top he found a small, sunken alcove only slightly smaller than the briefing room at the SGC. Someone had dragged a table up the stairs and a large pallet made of wood and netting. Debris littered the floor and dust covered everything, but Jack suddenly felt relieved. He wondered how many of these deserted hideouts there actually were in the city.
A cursory exploration yielded another short staircase that led to the base of the window. A broken door led outside to a narrow balcony with short walls and carved stone that had likely been used for maintenance purposes on the big window. Standing on the balcony he could look out over the sunless industrial landscape and truly appreciate its horrifying scope. He couldn’t see the ends of the city. A small section was his to study before it disappeared into obscurity at the edges. He could see the dark fog that covered the sky though. It hadn’t been apparent when he was standing in the streets and being dwarfed by the black buildings, but now he could see the uneven colors where the sky seemed brighter in some areas. It also seemed very close, the way the sky did on spring mornings when the mist came down on Earth.
Again he wondered if the darkness was really a natural state of the planet or if it was instead a result of war or an accident or something more purposeful and sinister. He tried not to think about what they could be breathing into their lungs. There was nothing they could do about that anyway.
He took a brief tour of the rest of the place just to make sure there were no hidden surprises, and then went immediately back for Teal’c and Daniel.
Teal’c insisted on carrying the packs while Jack half-carried, half-dragged Daniel along with them. Even with Daniel’s occasional wakeful periods where he would support his own weight and walk along with them, it took them several breaks and the rest of the day to reach the church. Jack had decided to call it a church because it seemed safer… and was just as logical as anything else.
They settled Daniel on the pallet in Carter’s sleeping bag and then Jack sat down in the dust and put his head in his hands. The effort of the past few days had caught up with him, and he felt hopelessly lost.
“O’Neill.” The low, quiet voice brought Jack’s head up, and he looked into Teal’c’s dark eyes.
Teal’c handed him a canteen. “Drink and then eat. Tomorrow we will have to look for food and water.”
Jack was too tired to do anything but nod. He took the canteen and then the MRE that Teal’c cut open for him. Once he started eating, he found his appetite, and he devoured the cold chicken and rice. He only sipped at the water, trying to conserve it. Teal’c was right. This would all be for naught if they didn’t at least find water soon. The thought weighed heavily on him, and he knew it was hitting him harder because he was so tired, but he couldn’t do anything to stop it.
He laid in the dark on top of his own sleeping bag and stared at the meager reflections of light in the big window. Close by, Teal’c slipped into kel-no-reem, and Jack thought he should probably stay awake to keep watch. But the days crashed down on him and he slipped into a hazy state in-between sleep and wakefulness where he searched endlessly for Carter down halls that all looked the same; and Daniel woke from his long sleep with flashing eyes and a voice that was out of tune and wavered in its pitch.
It was the touch of Teal’c’s hand on his shoulder that finally centered him and let him sink into sleep.
+ + +
[ temporal displacement ]
Daniel
He was aware that something went wrong. He woke but couldn’t open his eyes. The darkness kept coming back to claim him. Strange memories were a blur of images in his mind.
He really wanted to wake up. This dream was a nightmare. Bodies kept invading his dream. Sam, Jack, Teal’c, and people he didn’t even know. He felt himself being moved, felt pain and nausea, and his throat was dry. It seemed to last forever.
He tried hard at one point, when his body felt as if it had been dragged behind a truck. He swam hard for the surface, lungs bursting, and finally his eyes opened. Into more darkness. He gasped.
A face hovered above him. He recognized the eyes.
“Jack?” His voice sounded so far away.
There was relief in Jack’s eyes. “You’re okay, Daniel.”
Oh. So not dead. Not yet. Good. He couldn’t prevent his eyes from closing again.
+ + +
Daniel woke with a start. For a moment he was confused. He stared up at an arched ceiling filled with wooden rafters, and a strange light covered him. Knowledge and memory settled back down on him quietly and slowly. The gate and white walls and nightmares that had paralyzed him.
His head pounded. Suddenly his stomach lurched.
He sat up quickly, glancing around him. What, were they in a barn? Then he was looking down and there was an old basin there and he was dry heaving over the top of it. Footsteps approached.
His head swam, and his stomach started to bring some water up. The room spun, and he leaned perilously forward. Hands grabbed him, brought him back, held him steady until he stopped heaving, and he weakly spit the taste from his mouth. He was lowered gently back against the bed, and Daniel breathed in relief.
Jack sat on the edge of his bed. He nudged the basin away from them with the toe of his boot. Daniel heard it scrape against the floor.
“Sorry,” Daniel said weakly.
“S’alright,” Jack said in that soft voice that meant Daniel had been out for a while and there’d been no promise that he’d ever make it back. They’d all heard it before from their beds in the infirmary. “How do you feel?”
“Like crap.”
Jack raised his eyebrows. “At least we have the old Daniel back again.”
“What happened?”
He listened raptly as Jack told him what had happened to them all. He had a memory of going through the gate, but after that it became a jumble of flashing images. Even as Jack started putting the pieces into place though, some of his memories grew sharper, some expanded, some came out of hiding where they’d been lurking in his brain.
“I think it’s some kind of… hive mind,” he told Jack. He shook his head and swallowed. “I remember not having to think about anything. I had a job to do, and I just… knew… where I needed to go and what I needed to do.”
“We took a chip out of your neck. We thought it was a tracking device.”
Daniel raised a hand weakly to his throat. Jack lifted Daniel’s head with one hand and then the other closed around Daniel’s hand, leading it to his nape where he felt a bandage and a slight ache.
“Great.” Daniel closed his eyes and sank back into the sleeping bag.
Jack gave him some water and then told him that Sam hadn’t been recovered yet. Daniel said nothing and squeezed his eyes closed briefly. He wasn’t sure he was ready to face the possibilities of Sam being gone. Jack lowered his head, fingers fiddling with a rip in the thigh of his BDU trousers. “We’ll get her, Daniel. I just need you and Teal’c healthy first.”
Even through the haze in his pounding head, Daniel could see the guilt in his posture. “You didn’t leave her behind, Jack. You got us out. Now, we’ll go back and find her.”
“Get some sleep,” Jack said, standing. Daniel realized the conversation was being summarily shut down. Same old Jack.
“Where’s Teal’c?”
“We found water yesterday. We followed some footprints and then a path and found an old, broken water pipe coming up out of the ground. The water was still running. It looks clean but we’re boiling it anyway. He’s watching the fire downstairs. No trees.” Jack smiled with humor. “We have to burn the furniture.”
Daniel nodded and suddenly smelled the smoke.
Jack walked away, leaving him to settle back down and try and rest. It wasn’t until Daniel was nearly asleep that he suddenly noticed the huge stained glass window that made up nearly an entire wall of the room they were in. When his eyes slid shut, he still saw the colors against his eyelids.
+ + +
Jack
Daniel recovered more quickly than Teal’c. His body had been kept healthy, and it had only been his mind that had suffered a blow by being yanked out of the influence of the denizens of this world. The day after he woke for good, Jack fed him one of their MRE’s. Teal’c had had several. He needed the calories and the nutrition. Both he and his symbiote grew stronger. Within a week though, they were down to two of the meals-ready-to-eat.
Jack finally tucked those last two away in the bottom of his pack. Daniel and Teal’c watched him without comment and then nodded when he glanced up. They had one more member of SG-1 to find, and there was no telling what shape she would be in. The last of the supplies would be saved for her.
Jack had ventured out into the surrounding area over the past few days. They’d seen no one since the day they’d moved into the church. The search for them had apparently been called off when they’d not been found that same day. Teal’c had needed food and water and kel-no-reem. Daniel had gained strength quickly, but had stayed with Teal’c while Jack went in search of anything they could eat.
He’d found nothing. The city was an odd mixture of industrialized technology and remnants of an abandoned civilization. Well, abandoned or exterminated. There didn’t seem to be conclusive evidence of either.
Jack was beginning to think they had two choices. They could either go in after Carter now and take their chances or he was going to have to set off on a longer quest to find food. A mission that might take several days and yield nothing of use. Of course going in after Carter when they had no idea where she or the stargate were located could be equally as useless. And in either case failure likely meant death.
He hated decisions like this, but they were his to make on SG-1. The others might sometimes argue, but they trusted him. He knew that. They would follow him in the end.
They would follow him to the end.
He was looking through the dust covered shelves in the basement of the church, hoping to find maybe some paint or some paper or anything he could use to mark his way on his quest, when Teal’c’s voice boomed at him from the top of the stairs.
“O’Neill! You must return immediately.”
Jack felt a cold knife stab through his chest. He quickly skirted the piles of debris and charged up the steps. “What’s wrong?”
Teal’c was calm and motioned toward the loft. “Daniel Jackson has found something.”
Jack shot him an irritated glance for the false alarm and made his way up to the loft. He could see Daniel’s shadow outside of the octagonal window. When he stepped through the broken door, he saw Daniel hunkered down on his heels on the balcony looking out at the city through Jack’s monocular.
“What do you got?” Jack hunkered down beside him.
Daniel glanced at him and then handed him the monocular, pointing to a distant position to his right. “There’s a man over there.”
Jack put the monocular to his eye and began slowly scanning the area.
Daniel’s voice was soft beside him. “There’s a row of old buildings like this one, but not as big, behind those strange tubes that run along the ground over there. I see him occasionally passing in front of a window.”
Jack found the buildings and watched them. After a few moments, a bearded man walked in front of one of the glassless windows. “Bit,” he stated.
“What?”
“That’s Bit.”
“The guy who likes power bars?”
“Yeah.”
“We should go over and talk to him.”
Jack lowered the monocular and twisted his mouth a bit. “Don’t know if it’ll do any good. He thinks I’m a… crawler, whatever that is.”
“It’s a bug,” Daniel said absently.
Jack turned his head and stared at him. Daniel was staring down at the street, but there was a faraway look in his eyes. “It’s a what?” Jack asked.
Daniel glanced quickly at him, saw his expression and held his gaze. “A bug.” He furrowed his brows, thinking.
Jack waited. Memories had been coming back to Daniel in increasing numbers over the past few days. Some of them had been rather disturbing in nature, and Jack hadn’t pressed him. Daniel had apparently been part of some sort of maintenance unit. He cleaned computer systems and recycled the trash, which seemed to mostly consist of throwing old machinery, and dead human bodies, into the recycling chute and casting them out of the building. The memories were there. He remembered what he had done. He simply didn’t have a mental log of how he’d felt or why he’d done those things.
Jack prodded him a bit. “What’s a bug, Daniel?”
Daniel licked his lips. “I think it’s the name they give to… pests. Things that are a danger to… to… “
“To what?”
“The system.” Daniel took in a long, slow breath. “I think this whole planet is run by some sort of computer, Jack. And somehow, the people are… plugged into it.”
Jack raised his eyebrows. “Like The Matrix?”
Daniel shot him a long-suffering glance. “Not exactly.”
“Then what exactly? We need to know what we’re up against, Daniel.”
“I don’t know,” Daniel looked frustrated. “I still get the hive mind feeling from all of this, but there was so much technology. So much machinery and wiring. It felt robotic.”
Jack sighed. “Great.”
“Jack, we have to get Sam out of there soon. If she’s hooked up to that thing… “
“I know!” Jack snapped, feeling heat rising into face. He forced himself to regain control. “I know,” he repeated, quieter. “I don’t think we’re just going to run into her in the lobby the way I did with you. She may not even be in there anymore. What if they took her away? She could be in any of these buildings.” He waved his hand indicating the entire landscape of the city. “She could be on the other side of the planet.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened. “I’m trying to remember as much as possible, but we can use any information we can get.”
“Yes. And?”
“And, we need to talk to Bit. Now.”
Jack eyed him resignedly. “We only have one power bar left.”
“It’ll have to be enough.”
+ + +
[ forsaken ]
The row of buildings was in serious disrepair. Windows were long gone. Most of the doors hung on broken hinges. Sometimes whole walls were missing. The building they’d seen Bit in through the monocular was repaired haphazardly with wooden siding from the nearby wrecks.
Bit’s house?
Jack tentatively eased the door open, zat ready. Daniel was close behind him, but Teal’c held the other zat and watched the street.
“Hellooo,” Daniel suddenly called. Jack glared at him and made a shushing gesture with his hand. Daniel only looked a little chastised, but he kept quiet.
The door opened into a room filled with junk. It wasn’t leftover debris though. There were distinct pieces of machinery and textiles and plastic odds and ends. They weren’t heaped randomly, but placed carefully and free of dust. It was someone’s storage closet.
Jack moved into the room, glancing around. There was another door against the back wall that led further into the house. He started toward it, looking back to give Teal’c the sign language to stay put and stand guard. Teal’c gave him a sober nod in reply. Daniel followed Jack.
The second door was hung crookedly and gave a loud creak as Jack pushed it open with his boot. He winced a bit and held the zat up, ready. He stepped warily into a shadowed room with the same careful stacks of goods and gear. There was a scuffling sound, and Jack glanced to his right. Behind a large, shiny piece of flat metal propped against a wall, hunched Bit. He stared at Jack from his hiding place with wide eyes.
Jack took a step back. “Hey, Bit.”
“I thought they caught you,” Bit said.
“Told you I was sneaky,” Jack replied. He kept his distance, trying not to send the old man scurrying.
“Bit, we’d like to talk to you.” Daniel leaned in the doorway and looked earnestly at the guy.
Bit looked a bit startled. He twitched nervously. Jack put an arm across Daniel’s chest and pushed him back through the door. “Don’t freak him out.”
“I’m not- “ Daniel tripped as he moved backwards, and he swore under his breath. “Damn it.”
Jack backed out of the room where Bit was hiding and reached into his pocket for the power bar. He held it up. “Remember these?”
Bit just stared at him.
Jack moved it through his fingers with a sigh. “Well, look. We just want to talk to you. Talk to us, and we’ll leave you alone. And you’ll get this.” Jack held the bar up again.
He stepped back and settled himself against one of the walls, folding his arms across his chest, zat in one hand. Daniel watched him and then sat on what looked like an old barrel. A few moments later, Bit came tentatively to the doorway. His fingers moved restlessly together in front of him, and his eyes darted around from Jack to Daniel to the power bar in Jack’s free hand. He barely hesitated on the zat.
“You are obsolete?” He asked, eyes sliding from Jack to Daniel.
Jack glanced at Daniel. Daniel raised his brows and looked at Bit. “Ahhh, obsolete. You mean, no longer useful to the… system?”
“Yes. The System.” Bit said the words reverently.
“The system,” Daniel repeated it pensively. He studied Bit. “What is the system, Bit?”
Bit suddenly eyed him suspiciously. Daniel hurried to mend fences. “We are obsolete, Bit. Just like you… right?”
Bit nodded.
Daniel took a deep, quiet breath. “We, uh, don’t remember much. That’s why we want to know.”
“Damaged.” Bit nodded knowingly. He suddenly spread his arms. Jack jumped a bit, jerking the zat up. Bit ignored him, bliss on his face. “The System is everything. It is all knowing and it created the world and the sky and all the beings within.” His smile faded a bit. “Except the bugs.”
Daniel nodded slowly. “The bugs want to hurt the system?”
“Yes.”
“What about the Interceptors?” Jack asked.
Bit looked at him uneasily. “They catch the bugs.”
“Ah. Right.”
Daniel slid a warning glance in Jack’s direction. Jack responded with an indignant tilt of the head.
Daniel leaned forward and spoke carefully to Bit. “What did you do for the system, Bit?”
Bit hesitated, chewing his lip. “Code.”
“You, what… broke code, created code?”
“Created code. Fixed code.”
Daniel’s eyebrows suddenly shot upward. “Code. You programmed code? Like a computer?”
Bit simply looked at him, confused. He scratched at his beard and glanced at the power bar. Jack kept it visible, crinkling the foil on it every so often.
Daniel steepled his fingers against his mouth and chin. “Why are you obsolete, Bit?”
“Power surge. I could not connect.”
Jack shifted nervously. This was some freaky talk. Except for his Sony Playstation and the occasional computer program that Carter talked him through, he didn’t much like computers. He liked them even less when they did freaky things like connect to living human beings or assimilate civilizations or make lots of little creepy bugs out of small tiles that wouldn’t stay dead when you shot them.
“Are there others who are obsolete?”
Bit nodded.
Daniel continued, “Where are they?”
Bit hesitated again and then motioned to them. He turned and walked back through the second doorway. Daniel glanced at Jack who looked surprised.
“I didn’t see any other people around,” Daniel said.
Jack shrugged and walked after Bit. Daniel followed.
They walked through the second room and through yet another door and into a short hallway. At the end of the hallway, Bit disappeared down a set of stairs. Jack glanced back at Daniel. “Heads up.”
Daniel nodded, even though he had no weapon, and followed Jack slowly down the stairs. When they were at the bottom, they saw the other obsolete workers. Several skeletons lay curled on the floor in the corner. Daniel let out a heavy breath.
“Does the system kill them, or do they just… die?”
Bit fidgeted. “They do not know how to live outside. There is no reason.”
“You did.”
“I remember… different times.” Bit seemed thoughtful for a moment.
Jack suddenly spied something and walked away from them and to another corner of the room. He leaned down and picked up a SGC pack. “Where did you get this?”
Bit swallowed. “It was recycled by the system. It wasn’t needed!”
Jack walked it back and set it on the floor, flipping up the cover and pawing through it. “It’s your pack, Daniel. Looks mostly intact.”
"It was not needed," Bit insisted.
Daniel held out a hand in reassurance. "It's all right. We understand. I'd like to take it back though."
Bit chewed his lip and fidgeted.
Jack pulled a plastic bag out of a side pocket of the pack. He opened it and took 2 power bars out and held them up. "We'll give you more in trade. Okay?"
Bit furrowed his brows. "Trade," he repeated.
Jack held out the three power bars. "You take these. We take this." He patted the pack.
Bit glanced between them and then eased forward and grabbed the bars from Jack's hand. "Yes."
Bit was scared and far too twitchy after that. He had trouble concentrating on Daniel’s questions, and Jack realized they’d gotten everything out of them they were going to get.
They walked slowly back to the church, talking only occasionally. The information had been ominous and not useful in a tactical sense, but it had filled in some of the blanks concerning the people and the buildings of this planet. It had also given a clearer picture of what Carter was doing at that moment, and the thought cast a dark mood over the remaining members of SG-1.
"You don't suppose we could get detailed floor plans out of him, do you?" Jack asked, wryly, as they walked.
"I doubt it," Daniel replied. "Give him some time to settle down, and I'll talk to him again."
"I wonder why I was ‘recycled’... " Jack pondered, lifting his fingers to make quotation marks in the air.
"Maybe you just didn't have the kind of knowledge they wanted," Daniel offered.
"Maybe. But I could have pushed a broom like you were."
"Perhaps your brain was not able to connect to the system, O'Neill." Teal'c readjusted the pack on his shoulder.
Jack eyed him. "What do you mean by that?"
Teal'c opened his mouth to answer, but Daniel jumped in with a warning glance. "Ahh, maybe it was the ancient knowledge that was downloaded into your brain."
“That’s gone now.”
“Yes, but it may have fundamentally changed your brain in some way, Jack. Even on a molecular level. It might have made a difference in this instance.”
Jack looked at him sideways with a suspicious expression. "I suppose... "
Daniel’s gaze shifted over Jack’s shoulder, and Jack snapped his head around just in time to catch Teal'c giving Daniel the raised eyebrow. Jack scowled. "You know, maybe my brain was just not all exhausted from thinking about science all the time. Maybe my brain was resistant to their mind control. You ever think of that?"
Teal'c stared at him for a long moment. "I am certain that is correct, O'Neill."
He didn't sound certain. He sounded vaguely patronizing. Jack gave him a look of displeasure. Teal'c just gave him the eyebrow again.
"In any case," Daniel stated, interrupting their silent battle. "It's a good thing you were recycled, or I'd still be working body clean-up and Teal'c would likely be dead."
"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.
"Yeah, well, we're not done yet." Jack sobered as they climbed the hill to the church.
He sat on the balcony that night with his back against the thick, painted window, looking out into the darkness. When he stared at the stygian sky, he saw occasional ripples of light. They would roll across the sky and reflect ever so slightly from the tops of the black buildings. He thought he heard thunder sometimes.
He hated this place. What might have once been fascinating was now just exhausting and unbearable. He wanted to blow it out of the universe. He wanted to turn a bright light on it. He wanted his team back. He wanted all of them, whole and healthy and back where they belonged.
Goddamn it.
+ + +
[ atrophy ]
The next day, he woke up to find Daniel gone. He wasn’t unduly disturbed at first, figuring the man had gone for water or couldn’t sleep and was wandering nearby, but when several hours had passed with no sign of him, Jack got worried.
Teal’c was still not a hundred percent. He spent more time than usual in kel-no-reem, trying to repair both himself and his symbiote. Although they gave him the majority of the food, there simply wasn’t much to spare. Jack’s trousers were already looser. The MRE’s were the best possible thing to have in this situation with their decent caloric content, but they had to space them out. The goal was to keep from starving, not to be well fed. Finding Daniel’s pack with its treasure trove of another 8 MRE’s had buoyed his hopes a bit.
Jack used the monocular to search the city’s streets for signs of Daniel. It wasn’t until he trained the spyglass on Bit’s place that he saw the archeologist trudging back toward the church, a big bag in his hands.
Jack was waiting for him at the front door when he returned.
“What the hell were you thinking?”
Daniel blinked at him, stopping short as he crested the hill to the church and was met by Jack’s angry demand. “What are you talking about?”
“Did you even take a zat with you?”
“I-“
“I’ll answer that for you,” Jack snapped, not allowing him to finish. “No, you didn’t. I know because they’re both laying right where we put them last night.”
“I couldn’t sleep, and we needed more information from Bit,” Daniel protested.
“And you couldn’t wake either me or Teal’c to go with you? Daniel, how the hell do you know if that guy is dangerous or not?”
“Well, obviously not. I’m here, aren’t I?” Daniel was getting that steely, stubborn glint to his eyes that warned of his irritation.
“I didn’t drag your ass out of zombie-central just for you to get yourself killed by a lack of common sense.”
“Jack,” Daniel growled, jaws tight and eyes hard.
“This isn’t some fascinating social experiment, Daniel. How do I drill that through your head?” Jack was aware he was going a little overboard, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He’d managed to get two members of his team back and was desperate to go in and get the third. He didn’t want to slip backwards by suddenly losing one.
“Jack!” Daniel’s voice was a sharp crack above the quiet hum of the city. Jack focused on him. Daniel held up the bag in his hands. “I found food!”
+ + +
Jack stared at the sticky brown bar in his hands. About the size of a deck of cards, it seemed to be made of some sort of pureed grain and… other things he couldn’t identify, and was then pressed together into a bar that was soft and sticky and didn’t really smell all that appetizing. He glanced at Teal’c and saw him studying the bar with a vastly uncomfortable expression on his face, the eyebrow doing double-duty.
“This is food?” Jack asked.
Daniel smiled. “Yup!”
“For humans?” Jack added, dryly.
“Of course!” Daniel pulled another one from his sack. It was encased in a thick, peel-able plastic, almost like a rind. “I think they’re some sort of emergency ration that this planet’s military used. There were just crates upon crates of these things in the building that Bit showed me. I think it was sort of apocalyptic at the end, and the survivors gathered all the food and supplies into one area for the long haul.” Daniel gave a sad frown. “Which, um, wasn’t all that long really.”
Teal’c sniffed his bar and jerked his head back again, eyes lifting suspiciously to Daniel. “This does not smell like palatable food, Daniel Jackson. It is possible it has spoiled.”
“Yeah,” Jack agreed, pointing at Teal’c. “Didn’t they have any Spam or maybe a nice Twinkie or two? Those last forever, don’t they?”
“It’s not spoiled. Their preservation technology is really amazing. They even had what looked like fruit preserved in glass jars… and they were whole and not dried or soaking in brine or preservatives.”
Jack twisted a corner of his mouth down. “And yet you chose to bring us these instead.”
Daniel grimaced. “Well, honestly, Jack… there was a lot of food, but it was Bit’s lifetime supply. I didn’t feel right.”
Jack sighed. Typical Daniel. Maybe he was right. Still… he stared at the bar uneasily. “You know, these could have anything in them. They might not be safe.”
“They’re fine,” Daniel stated with enough confidence that Jack eyed him from under raised brows.
“And you would know that… how?” Jack put some warning into his tone. Goddamn it, Daniel.
“Because I ate one on the way back.”
“Goddamn it, Daniel!”
Daniel shrugged. “Well, one of us had to try them, and I knew you’d be all paranoid about it, so I just did it. And I feel fine. They’re a little chewy and don’t have much of a flavor, but I feel pretty good. I think the nutrition in them is compact and pretty dense.”
Jack glared at him, but then Teal’c took a bite of his bar. Jack watched him as he chewed and then swallowed. “Well?”
Teal’c hesitated, waiting. “I feel fine, O’Neill. Perhaps you should wait until tomorrow to partake though. Then you can be sure that Daniel Jackson and I have suffered no ill effects.”
Jack looked between them, irritation written all over his features, before he swore quietly. “Aw, hell, it’s already open.” He took a bite. Daniel was right. It was chewy and tasted vaguely meaty and had a grainy texture. It wasn’t horrible though, and it seemed to sit well in his stomach.
All right. So they had food. Of a sort anyway. One more thing off his mind. He opened one of their canteens to wash the bite down and then leaned back against the table in their loft to finish eating the ration bar. “So, what else did you find out?” He asked Daniel.
Daniel sank down onto the wide pallet where he still slept in Carter’s sleeping bag. Since he’d been sleeping in it for nearly a week, it made more sense to just let her use his when, and if, they found her. “Not much really. Bit isn’t too focused on anything but day-to-day survival. I have a feeling that being hooked to ‘the system’”-Daniel said the words with deliberate emphasis-“takes a toll on the human mind.”
“Ya think?” Jack took another swig of water.
Daniel ignored him. “The building he showed me when I asked about food was spectacular. It was obviously a shelter, and it was stocked to the ceiling. I could have explored it all day. It told a lot about the society that used to live here. Something big happened on this planet not too long ago, and it took over.”
Jack wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and shot him a sardonic glance. “Something like… Hal 9000?”
Daniel didn’t smile. “Something like that, yeah.”
“You believe this planet has been taken over by a sentient computer, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c furrowed his brows.
“I’m not really sure, Teal’c,” Daniel replied, rubbing his fingers over the sharp shadow of beard on his jaw. “All I know is what I remember from being ‘connected’ and what I’ve observed out here since then. And obviously something or someone is controlling everything and everyone here. Even the climate seems controlled.” He motioned toward the window and outside. “ Every basic job has workers to keep the system running. Obviously the technology is computer driven and the prime objective seems to be the upkeep of ‘The System’, as Bit calls it.” He scrubbed at his face and then ran his fingers tiredly into his hair, bracing his elbows on his knees.
“Daniel?”
He glanced up again. “I’m okay. I just… talking to Bit about it all made me remember more things about my time inside of it.”
”What sort of things?”
“Just images mostly. Walking hallways, the people I saw, the way information was always just there for me when I needed it.”
“Hive mind?”
Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know. Whenever I needed to know something, it was just… there. But at the same time, I don’t remember any other voices. I never communicated with the other workers. Ever.”
“You were pretty glazed over when I found you. You didn’t fight me, you just kept trying to avoid me and walk away.”
Daniel shook his head. “I didn’t have a need to remember anything because whatever I needed to know would be fed to me. I think that’s why I’m having a hard time remembering things.”
Jack walked over to him and gripped his shoulder briefly. “It’s all right. We’ve got time now.”
Daniel took a deep breath. “How much time does Sam have though?”
“We’re going in and we’re not coming out without her, whether we go in blind or not.”
Daniel glanced at Teal’c, who nodded slowly at him, eyes determined and confident. Jack gave his shoulder a squeeze and then moved off. “Whatever it takes.”
+ + +
[ depth perception ]
Daniel
The talk with Bit had done amazing things to his mind. Just hearing the terminology that Bit used when talking about The System had spurred Daniel’s mind into turmoil.
He dreamed that night as he did most nights now, of walking long, straight corridors. He never felt lost. He always knew exactly where he was going. He saw brightly lit rows of workers, all in white suits, wired to the gills and eerily silent as they sat in their docking bays. Sometimes The System would send him to a bay that was dark. Inside was always a lifeless body, the unit expired. The System would immediately shut down the connection, and Daniel would disconnect them and take them out to be recycled.
Except…
Except this dream was different. In this one he kept finding himself in a certain room. At the very bottom of the building. And there was a unit he was drawn to again and again. He knew this unit was female, and that shouldn’t have mattered or made sense to him, but it did. He suddenly saw image after image of himself standing beside her, staring down. She was just like the other units, in a white suit and hard-wired, head shaved to make the contact points smooth and accessible. But… something was different.
Daniel woke with a jerk; sweat beading on his brow. He sat up in the pallet and felt the breath heavy in his lungs. His heart was racing, and the utter darkness disoriented him for a moment. Before he’d gotten his bearings, he’d propelled himself out of bed and onto the floor, fumbling forward until he’d planted a hand directly into Jack’s back.
“Jack!” His sleep-drenched voice was loud and dry.
Jack woke, startled, and turned beneath Daniel’s trembling hands. “What the hell? Daniel?”
“I know,” Daniel whispered hoarsely.
“Daniel, settle down.” Jack’s voice was irritated. Across the loft, Daniel heard Teal’c stir and come toward them. He sat back on his heels and focused on their shadows.
“I know,” Daniel repeated, his voice gaining strength. “I know where Sam is.”
+ + +
Jack
They went in to get Carter two days later.
Teal’c was strong enough, and they’d been able to stop the rationing. While the native ration bars made the worst MRE seem like a gourmet meal, Daniel had been right. They were fortifying and dense. Two bars could easily sustain a man Teal’c’s size for a day. You didn’t even get hungry. Daniel suspected they were made with some sort of time-release ability similar to earthly cold medications. Whatever, they did wonders.
Their gear was meager. The retrieval of Daniel’s pack had given them nothing of a tactical advantage. There’d been no zat or pistol, not even a knife or a rope. In the end, Jack had made them suit up lightly anyway. They’d need to move fast, and like before, the best scenario ended with all four of them gating home. The worst he refused to think about. Either way, they didn’t need their extra equipment. It was expendable.
Jack cleaned the Swiss Army Knife and tucked it into his shirt pocket. This time, they wouldn’t give the Interceptors a chance to target them. He allowed Daniel to carry a small hand-made pack on his belt with 2 MRE’s and the med kit inside. If they got Carter out but were somehow stranded elsewhere, he wanted to be prepared to take care of her. They all carried canteens and homemade knives that Teal’c had made which were basically prison shivs made of scrap metal and wood. He and Teal’c carried the two zats.
They got in the same way Jack had the last time. A careful exploration of the junkyard showed no sign of guards, and there was plenty of cord in the pile. The corded wire he’d used last time was removed from the chute as expected, but when the doors opened to let down a rain of scrap, Jack could see that nothing had been done to safeguard the entrance.
“It might not have realized how you got in,” Daniel theorized. He’d taken to calling the city and the buildings and the entire system “it” instead of “them”. “The rope was probably just an obstruction in the chute and had to be removed.”
“Well, it’s our lucky day then,” Jack commented grimly. He was in a somber mood. He was accustomed to burying his nervousness and doing the job that needed to be done, but concern for Sam was also leaking through. Finding her was the first step. Then they’d see what sort of shape she was in.
The three of them made quick work of fashioning a grappling hook and braiding it into a long coil of wire. The peak of the junk pile seemed to always be within 50 feet or so of the chute’s doors. Jack suspected that some of the workers must come out to rake the scrap out toward the walls of the huge yard, but he’d never seen anyone.
“Hey,” Daniel suddenly called softly from where he knelt working on the cord. Jack looked over at him. Daniel nodded toward one of the entrances to the yard. Jack glanced that way and saw Bit peering at them from the opening.
“Will he try to interfere?” Teal’c asked, eyes hard.
“I don’t think so. He’s probably just wondering what the hell we’re doing.” Daniel sighed.
“He tried to steal my jacket the last time I saw him here.” Jack felt uneasy with an audience.
“Well, he thought you were dead,” Daniel replied, faint smile on his face.
“As long as he keeps quiet.”
“Jack… “ Daniel said hesitantly.
Jack ground his teeth together. He hated that tone. That tone meant Daniel was going to point something out that Jack wouldn’t be happy about. “What?” It came out more snappish than he’d intended.
Daniel didn’t fluster easily though. He steadily held Jack’s gaze. “We can’t just leave him here alone. He’s an outcast. We need to take him back through the gate with us.”
“This is his home, Daniel. He hasn’t asked us to take him back with us.”
“He doesn’t even realize there’s a different life available to him. He survives when everyone else who is obsolete dies.”
“We cannot force this man to leave if he does not wish it,” Teal’c stated.
“I know. I’m just saying we have to try.”
Jack blew a light breath out between his lips and hesitated in his work, squinting at Daniel. “The best case scenario here is that we find Carter and the gate and we go home today. If that happens, we are going through that gate. We’ll decide how to help Bit later, once we’re all out of danger. Getting you home safely is my first priority, Daniel. That’s non-negotiable.”
Daniel seemed to want to argue that. He looked disagreeable and opened his mouth to speak.
Jack cut him off before he got started. “Non-negotiable, Daniel.”
Daniel chewed the inside of his lip and furrowed his brows. “All right. Let’s just find Sam first. We can worry about everything else later.”
Jack was willing to let him get by with that. They needed to concentrate on the task at hand.
+ + +
[ infrastructure ]
They had to wait in the narrow tunnel beneath the chute control room for several long minutes while the worker there completed his job. Daniel seemed abnormally preoccupied, and Jack could guess why. He watched as Daniel reached out again and again and laid fingers upon the eerily cool, vibrating walls.
“Creepy,” Jack remarked quietly to him. Daniel glanced at him and nodded, and even Teal’c gave a small sound of agreement.
Once the worker had gone, they climbed up the short ladder and into the upper level. Daniel glanced around with an uneasy expression.
“This is where I found you,” Jack explained. “And, um, zatted you.”
Daniel didn’t answer, but he walked over to the control panel to give it a once over. Jack listened for that louder rumbling sound that had seemed to throw the building into a tizzy the last time. It was quiet except for the ever-present hum. Teal’c, zat ready, took a short recon walk up the hallway leading out of the control room.
“Let’s get moving,” Jack finally urged Daniel as he glanced back from the control panel. Daniel nodded, and they moved carefully down the hallway after Teal’c.
“Where are we going?” Jack asked, as they reached the first intersection. He lowered himself to place a penny on the floor as he did the last time.
Daniel closed his eyes and thought about it a moment. “Straight ahead.”
They walked forward with Jack in the lead and Daniel behind him. Teal’c trailed a few steps, watching their backs.
“She’s deep,” Daniel said as they walked. “No windows and it’s dark. I remember having to go down quite a ways.” He led them through the corridors until they reached a seeming pivot point in the building. There was a circular shaft that ran up and down through the building with a wide hallway surrounding it. Corridors branched off this area like spokes on a wheel. Jack placed a penny on the one they’d come out of.
“What is this place?” Teal’c asked, worried.
Daniel licked his lips and looked up to where the shaft disappeared through the ceiling. “It’s the central hub of the building. I would sometimes have to do maintenance here.” He walked around the shaft slowly and then stopped. He leaned close to the surface and then used his fingernails to pry open a small door. They all leaned over to have a look inside.
A smaller shaft of glowing red light ran up through the center disappearing far above and far below. Thin black wires connected it to the walls. The same wiring also lay flat and thick against the inner surfaces of the shaft. Jack felt his head begin to throb.
“You feel that?” He asked. He pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead.
“It is most uncomfortable,” Teal’c said. He shifted nervously.
Daniel frowned. “It does feel weird. As if there’s some sort of wave coming off of it.” He held a hand out as if he might be able to feel it radiating from within.
“I think you’d better shut that door,” Jack warned.
For once, Daniel didn’t argue. He shut the door and stepped away from it.
“Which way?” Jack asked, trying to keep him focused.
Daniel glanced around and then walked around to the opposite side of the shaft. He stood in front of a door, and it opened revealing an elevator. “Here.”
They stepped into the small elevator, and the door shushed closed behind them. Daniel stared at the wall where a control panel would be located on Earth. “Ummm…”
“How did you control it before?” Jack asked as his eyes scanned the wall for the faint indentation he’d seen before.
“I don’t think I did,” Daniel replied. “I think The System did it for me. It knew where it was sending me so it just sent me there.”
“That is most unhelpful,” Teal’c stated. He sounded vaguely miffed, and it drew a raised brow from Daniel.
Jack traced the indentation he’d found on the wall with his fingertips. He found a place where the panel’s door was bent outwards just enough to catch the edge with the pad of his forefinger, and he forced it outward. The door popped open.
“What the hell is that?” Daniel exclaimed, looking over his shoulder.
Jack backed off and let him in. “It’s how I operated one of these things when I went looking for Teal’c.”
Daniel studied it with interest. “It looks like a much less futuristic version of an elevator. As if this is actually an older building, but was simply remodeled into what it is now.”
“Which button do we press to get to Carter?” Jack asked impatiently.
Daniel thought about that. “Truthfully? I’m not sure. I’ll know the level when I see it.” He reached out and pushed the bottom button.
“Daniel!” Jack protested as the elevator suddenly hummed and began moving.
“I know she’s deep, so we might as well try the bottom button first,” Daniel explained.
Jack swallowed a snippy reply about Daniel’s seeming urge to touch things and push buttons before Jack had had time to assess the situation, but it was already done, and it was a logical move in any case.
Jack put himself and Teal’c back to back to face both doors in the elevator. He wasn’t going to be taken by surprise twice by that move.
The first time the doors opened, they revealed more corridors, and Daniel shook his head and hit the next button up from the last.
The second time, they revealed a huge room of upright electronic panels with pulsing blue lights. Workers in white suits stood in front of them, wires running from their limbs and their heads into the panels. The workers moved restlessly, shifting on their feet, arms held at odd angles. Jack felt suddenly cold.
Daniel shook his head though, and hit another button.
The third time, they saw a dimly lit hallway, and Daniel nodded. They stepped warily out of the elevator and walked forward. The hum seemed louder here, and that alone made Jack nervous and hopeful.
A little ways down the hall they came to a door. Jack touched it lightly, and it slid suddenly open. He jerked back slightly, but then leaned forward when he saw no one and nothing immediately threatening. It looked like a lab. There were machines and tables and shelves of vials and tubes and bags. Everything was immaculately clean, but then the whole place seemed that way.
Jack stepped inside, zat held ready. Daniel stepped in behind him. The room was small, and Jack cleared it in moments. No workers huddled behind shelving or tables. No Carter either. He was about to move out into the hallway again when Daniel gave a sharp whisper.
“Jack!”
Jack turned and saw Daniel holding up one of their P-90’s. His eyes widened in joy. “Sweet!” He walked quickly over and found the other two automatic weapons along with Daniel’s pistol all laying on one of the lab tables. There was no sign of Teal’c’s staff weapon. There were deep scratches in the metal where it looked as if samples had been taken. The clips were laying alongside the guns, a few bullets disassembled on the table.
Jack picked them up one by one, loading the clips back into them. There were four extra clips and that was all. They usually held ten altogether, but a quick search failed to reveal the remaining six. The pistol held one clip, and only four bullets. Jack handed Daniel one of the P-90’s and tucked the pistol into his belt. He picked up another P-90 and tossed the last one to Teal’c.
“Now,” he said, eyes glittering. “Now, we find Carter.”
+ + +
Part 3
By Jennghis Kahn
+ + +
[ lost grace ]
Jack had found a place. Without a compass, he’d only wandered the streets where he could still see the big circular building and use it for navigation. Coming upon a street that was long and straight enough to obscure its end, he’d set out warily down its narrow confines.
Teal’c had still had his watch, so Jack had borrowed it for this mission. An hour later, he began to notice something interesting. The dark metal dropped away and suddenly there were old structures made of wood and stone, reminding him of the quarantine area that had held Teal’c. They were just as abandoned as the rest of the city, but were run down and showed evidence of battle damage. They were reminders of a former way of life within the cold, stark technology. Although there was still an eery lack of trees or plants or animals and insects, this section was not nearly as inhuman.
Until now, the city had been laid out on a flat plain. It had been eerily even and distinct in its pattern. Now, he stood at the bottom of a hill and looked up at a glorious, octagonal, stained glass window. It was a mass of small, colorful geometric shapes. The building could have been an old temple of some kind. It certainly had a church-like feel to it, but there were no spires or symbols or anything that called people to worship, other than the big window that looked down over the city.
Inside, it was vast but seemed smaller with the heaps of rubble and junk that moldered in the open. He walked toward the window, awed by its color and presence even though the dark nature of the planet precluded a truly brilliant display were the sun to shine through it.
There was evidence that others had stayed here. Fire circles were burnt black into the floor, long dead by the looks of them. The floor was filled with footprints leading to and fro. Jack called out once and heard nothing stirring.
Just beneath the window there was a loft. Stairs rose up on either side of it and were sturdy enough to hold him. When he reached the top he found a small, sunken alcove only slightly smaller than the briefing room at the SGC. Someone had dragged a table up the stairs and a large pallet made of wood and netting. Debris littered the floor and dust covered everything, but Jack suddenly felt relieved. He wondered how many of these deserted hideouts there actually were in the city.
A cursory exploration yielded another short staircase that led to the base of the window. A broken door led outside to a narrow balcony with short walls and carved stone that had likely been used for maintenance purposes on the big window. Standing on the balcony he could look out over the sunless industrial landscape and truly appreciate its horrifying scope. He couldn’t see the ends of the city. A small section was his to study before it disappeared into obscurity at the edges. He could see the dark fog that covered the sky though. It hadn’t been apparent when he was standing in the streets and being dwarfed by the black buildings, but now he could see the uneven colors where the sky seemed brighter in some areas. It also seemed very close, the way the sky did on spring mornings when the mist came down on Earth.
Again he wondered if the darkness was really a natural state of the planet or if it was instead a result of war or an accident or something more purposeful and sinister. He tried not to think about what they could be breathing into their lungs. There was nothing they could do about that anyway.
He took a brief tour of the rest of the place just to make sure there were no hidden surprises, and then went immediately back for Teal’c and Daniel.
Teal’c insisted on carrying the packs while Jack half-carried, half-dragged Daniel along with them. Even with Daniel’s occasional wakeful periods where he would support his own weight and walk along with them, it took them several breaks and the rest of the day to reach the church. Jack had decided to call it a church because it seemed safer… and was just as logical as anything else.
They settled Daniel on the pallet in Carter’s sleeping bag and then Jack sat down in the dust and put his head in his hands. The effort of the past few days had caught up with him, and he felt hopelessly lost.
“O’Neill.” The low, quiet voice brought Jack’s head up, and he looked into Teal’c’s dark eyes.
Teal’c handed him a canteen. “Drink and then eat. Tomorrow we will have to look for food and water.”
Jack was too tired to do anything but nod. He took the canteen and then the MRE that Teal’c cut open for him. Once he started eating, he found his appetite, and he devoured the cold chicken and rice. He only sipped at the water, trying to conserve it. Teal’c was right. This would all be for naught if they didn’t at least find water soon. The thought weighed heavily on him, and he knew it was hitting him harder because he was so tired, but he couldn’t do anything to stop it.
He laid in the dark on top of his own sleeping bag and stared at the meager reflections of light in the big window. Close by, Teal’c slipped into kel-no-reem, and Jack thought he should probably stay awake to keep watch. But the days crashed down on him and he slipped into a hazy state in-between sleep and wakefulness where he searched endlessly for Carter down halls that all looked the same; and Daniel woke from his long sleep with flashing eyes and a voice that was out of tune and wavered in its pitch.
It was the touch of Teal’c’s hand on his shoulder that finally centered him and let him sink into sleep.
+ + +
[ temporal displacement ]
Daniel
He was aware that something went wrong. He woke but couldn’t open his eyes. The darkness kept coming back to claim him. Strange memories were a blur of images in his mind.
He really wanted to wake up. This dream was a nightmare. Bodies kept invading his dream. Sam, Jack, Teal’c, and people he didn’t even know. He felt himself being moved, felt pain and nausea, and his throat was dry. It seemed to last forever.
He tried hard at one point, when his body felt as if it had been dragged behind a truck. He swam hard for the surface, lungs bursting, and finally his eyes opened. Into more darkness. He gasped.
A face hovered above him. He recognized the eyes.
“Jack?” His voice sounded so far away.
There was relief in Jack’s eyes. “You’re okay, Daniel.”
Oh. So not dead. Not yet. Good. He couldn’t prevent his eyes from closing again.
+ + +
Daniel woke with a start. For a moment he was confused. He stared up at an arched ceiling filled with wooden rafters, and a strange light covered him. Knowledge and memory settled back down on him quietly and slowly. The gate and white walls and nightmares that had paralyzed him.
His head pounded. Suddenly his stomach lurched.
He sat up quickly, glancing around him. What, were they in a barn? Then he was looking down and there was an old basin there and he was dry heaving over the top of it. Footsteps approached.
His head swam, and his stomach started to bring some water up. The room spun, and he leaned perilously forward. Hands grabbed him, brought him back, held him steady until he stopped heaving, and he weakly spit the taste from his mouth. He was lowered gently back against the bed, and Daniel breathed in relief.
Jack sat on the edge of his bed. He nudged the basin away from them with the toe of his boot. Daniel heard it scrape against the floor.
“Sorry,” Daniel said weakly.
“S’alright,” Jack said in that soft voice that meant Daniel had been out for a while and there’d been no promise that he’d ever make it back. They’d all heard it before from their beds in the infirmary. “How do you feel?”
“Like crap.”
Jack raised his eyebrows. “At least we have the old Daniel back again.”
“What happened?”
He listened raptly as Jack told him what had happened to them all. He had a memory of going through the gate, but after that it became a jumble of flashing images. Even as Jack started putting the pieces into place though, some of his memories grew sharper, some expanded, some came out of hiding where they’d been lurking in his brain.
“I think it’s some kind of… hive mind,” he told Jack. He shook his head and swallowed. “I remember not having to think about anything. I had a job to do, and I just… knew… where I needed to go and what I needed to do.”
“We took a chip out of your neck. We thought it was a tracking device.”
Daniel raised a hand weakly to his throat. Jack lifted Daniel’s head with one hand and then the other closed around Daniel’s hand, leading it to his nape where he felt a bandage and a slight ache.
“Great.” Daniel closed his eyes and sank back into the sleeping bag.
Jack gave him some water and then told him that Sam hadn’t been recovered yet. Daniel said nothing and squeezed his eyes closed briefly. He wasn’t sure he was ready to face the possibilities of Sam being gone. Jack lowered his head, fingers fiddling with a rip in the thigh of his BDU trousers. “We’ll get her, Daniel. I just need you and Teal’c healthy first.”
Even through the haze in his pounding head, Daniel could see the guilt in his posture. “You didn’t leave her behind, Jack. You got us out. Now, we’ll go back and find her.”
“Get some sleep,” Jack said, standing. Daniel realized the conversation was being summarily shut down. Same old Jack.
“Where’s Teal’c?”
“We found water yesterday. We followed some footprints and then a path and found an old, broken water pipe coming up out of the ground. The water was still running. It looks clean but we’re boiling it anyway. He’s watching the fire downstairs. No trees.” Jack smiled with humor. “We have to burn the furniture.”
Daniel nodded and suddenly smelled the smoke.
Jack walked away, leaving him to settle back down and try and rest. It wasn’t until Daniel was nearly asleep that he suddenly noticed the huge stained glass window that made up nearly an entire wall of the room they were in. When his eyes slid shut, he still saw the colors against his eyelids.
+ + +
Jack
Daniel recovered more quickly than Teal’c. His body had been kept healthy, and it had only been his mind that had suffered a blow by being yanked out of the influence of the denizens of this world. The day after he woke for good, Jack fed him one of their MRE’s. Teal’c had had several. He needed the calories and the nutrition. Both he and his symbiote grew stronger. Within a week though, they were down to two of the meals-ready-to-eat.
Jack finally tucked those last two away in the bottom of his pack. Daniel and Teal’c watched him without comment and then nodded when he glanced up. They had one more member of SG-1 to find, and there was no telling what shape she would be in. The last of the supplies would be saved for her.
Jack had ventured out into the surrounding area over the past few days. They’d seen no one since the day they’d moved into the church. The search for them had apparently been called off when they’d not been found that same day. Teal’c had needed food and water and kel-no-reem. Daniel had gained strength quickly, but had stayed with Teal’c while Jack went in search of anything they could eat.
He’d found nothing. The city was an odd mixture of industrialized technology and remnants of an abandoned civilization. Well, abandoned or exterminated. There didn’t seem to be conclusive evidence of either.
Jack was beginning to think they had two choices. They could either go in after Carter now and take their chances or he was going to have to set off on a longer quest to find food. A mission that might take several days and yield nothing of use. Of course going in after Carter when they had no idea where she or the stargate were located could be equally as useless. And in either case failure likely meant death.
He hated decisions like this, but they were his to make on SG-1. The others might sometimes argue, but they trusted him. He knew that. They would follow him in the end.
They would follow him to the end.
He was looking through the dust covered shelves in the basement of the church, hoping to find maybe some paint or some paper or anything he could use to mark his way on his quest, when Teal’c’s voice boomed at him from the top of the stairs.
“O’Neill! You must return immediately.”
Jack felt a cold knife stab through his chest. He quickly skirted the piles of debris and charged up the steps. “What’s wrong?”
Teal’c was calm and motioned toward the loft. “Daniel Jackson has found something.”
Jack shot him an irritated glance for the false alarm and made his way up to the loft. He could see Daniel’s shadow outside of the octagonal window. When he stepped through the broken door, he saw Daniel hunkered down on his heels on the balcony looking out at the city through Jack’s monocular.
“What do you got?” Jack hunkered down beside him.
Daniel glanced at him and then handed him the monocular, pointing to a distant position to his right. “There’s a man over there.”
Jack put the monocular to his eye and began slowly scanning the area.
Daniel’s voice was soft beside him. “There’s a row of old buildings like this one, but not as big, behind those strange tubes that run along the ground over there. I see him occasionally passing in front of a window.”
Jack found the buildings and watched them. After a few moments, a bearded man walked in front of one of the glassless windows. “Bit,” he stated.
“What?”
“That’s Bit.”
“The guy who likes power bars?”
“Yeah.”
“We should go over and talk to him.”
Jack lowered the monocular and twisted his mouth a bit. “Don’t know if it’ll do any good. He thinks I’m a… crawler, whatever that is.”
“It’s a bug,” Daniel said absently.
Jack turned his head and stared at him. Daniel was staring down at the street, but there was a faraway look in his eyes. “It’s a what?” Jack asked.
Daniel glanced quickly at him, saw his expression and held his gaze. “A bug.” He furrowed his brows, thinking.
Jack waited. Memories had been coming back to Daniel in increasing numbers over the past few days. Some of them had been rather disturbing in nature, and Jack hadn’t pressed him. Daniel had apparently been part of some sort of maintenance unit. He cleaned computer systems and recycled the trash, which seemed to mostly consist of throwing old machinery, and dead human bodies, into the recycling chute and casting them out of the building. The memories were there. He remembered what he had done. He simply didn’t have a mental log of how he’d felt or why he’d done those things.
Jack prodded him a bit. “What’s a bug, Daniel?”
Daniel licked his lips. “I think it’s the name they give to… pests. Things that are a danger to… to… “
“To what?”
“The system.” Daniel took in a long, slow breath. “I think this whole planet is run by some sort of computer, Jack. And somehow, the people are… plugged into it.”
Jack raised his eyebrows. “Like The Matrix?”
Daniel shot him a long-suffering glance. “Not exactly.”
“Then what exactly? We need to know what we’re up against, Daniel.”
“I don’t know,” Daniel looked frustrated. “I still get the hive mind feeling from all of this, but there was so much technology. So much machinery and wiring. It felt robotic.”
Jack sighed. “Great.”
“Jack, we have to get Sam out of there soon. If she’s hooked up to that thing… “
“I know!” Jack snapped, feeling heat rising into face. He forced himself to regain control. “I know,” he repeated, quieter. “I don’t think we’re just going to run into her in the lobby the way I did with you. She may not even be in there anymore. What if they took her away? She could be in any of these buildings.” He waved his hand indicating the entire landscape of the city. “She could be on the other side of the planet.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened. “I’m trying to remember as much as possible, but we can use any information we can get.”
“Yes. And?”
“And, we need to talk to Bit. Now.”
Jack eyed him resignedly. “We only have one power bar left.”
“It’ll have to be enough.”
+ + +
[ forsaken ]
The row of buildings was in serious disrepair. Windows were long gone. Most of the doors hung on broken hinges. Sometimes whole walls were missing. The building they’d seen Bit in through the monocular was repaired haphazardly with wooden siding from the nearby wrecks.
Bit’s house?
Jack tentatively eased the door open, zat ready. Daniel was close behind him, but Teal’c held the other zat and watched the street.
“Hellooo,” Daniel suddenly called. Jack glared at him and made a shushing gesture with his hand. Daniel only looked a little chastised, but he kept quiet.
The door opened into a room filled with junk. It wasn’t leftover debris though. There were distinct pieces of machinery and textiles and plastic odds and ends. They weren’t heaped randomly, but placed carefully and free of dust. It was someone’s storage closet.
Jack moved into the room, glancing around. There was another door against the back wall that led further into the house. He started toward it, looking back to give Teal’c the sign language to stay put and stand guard. Teal’c gave him a sober nod in reply. Daniel followed Jack.
The second door was hung crookedly and gave a loud creak as Jack pushed it open with his boot. He winced a bit and held the zat up, ready. He stepped warily into a shadowed room with the same careful stacks of goods and gear. There was a scuffling sound, and Jack glanced to his right. Behind a large, shiny piece of flat metal propped against a wall, hunched Bit. He stared at Jack from his hiding place with wide eyes.
Jack took a step back. “Hey, Bit.”
“I thought they caught you,” Bit said.
“Told you I was sneaky,” Jack replied. He kept his distance, trying not to send the old man scurrying.
“Bit, we’d like to talk to you.” Daniel leaned in the doorway and looked earnestly at the guy.
Bit looked a bit startled. He twitched nervously. Jack put an arm across Daniel’s chest and pushed him back through the door. “Don’t freak him out.”
“I’m not- “ Daniel tripped as he moved backwards, and he swore under his breath. “Damn it.”
Jack backed out of the room where Bit was hiding and reached into his pocket for the power bar. He held it up. “Remember these?”
Bit just stared at him.
Jack moved it through his fingers with a sigh. “Well, look. We just want to talk to you. Talk to us, and we’ll leave you alone. And you’ll get this.” Jack held the bar up again.
He stepped back and settled himself against one of the walls, folding his arms across his chest, zat in one hand. Daniel watched him and then sat on what looked like an old barrel. A few moments later, Bit came tentatively to the doorway. His fingers moved restlessly together in front of him, and his eyes darted around from Jack to Daniel to the power bar in Jack’s free hand. He barely hesitated on the zat.
“You are obsolete?” He asked, eyes sliding from Jack to Daniel.
Jack glanced at Daniel. Daniel raised his brows and looked at Bit. “Ahhh, obsolete. You mean, no longer useful to the… system?”
“Yes. The System.” Bit said the words reverently.
“The system,” Daniel repeated it pensively. He studied Bit. “What is the system, Bit?”
Bit suddenly eyed him suspiciously. Daniel hurried to mend fences. “We are obsolete, Bit. Just like you… right?”
Bit nodded.
Daniel took a deep, quiet breath. “We, uh, don’t remember much. That’s why we want to know.”
“Damaged.” Bit nodded knowingly. He suddenly spread his arms. Jack jumped a bit, jerking the zat up. Bit ignored him, bliss on his face. “The System is everything. It is all knowing and it created the world and the sky and all the beings within.” His smile faded a bit. “Except the bugs.”
Daniel nodded slowly. “The bugs want to hurt the system?”
“Yes.”
“What about the Interceptors?” Jack asked.
Bit looked at him uneasily. “They catch the bugs.”
“Ah. Right.”
Daniel slid a warning glance in Jack’s direction. Jack responded with an indignant tilt of the head.
Daniel leaned forward and spoke carefully to Bit. “What did you do for the system, Bit?”
Bit hesitated, chewing his lip. “Code.”
“You, what… broke code, created code?”
“Created code. Fixed code.”
Daniel’s eyebrows suddenly shot upward. “Code. You programmed code? Like a computer?”
Bit simply looked at him, confused. He scratched at his beard and glanced at the power bar. Jack kept it visible, crinkling the foil on it every so often.
Daniel steepled his fingers against his mouth and chin. “Why are you obsolete, Bit?”
“Power surge. I could not connect.”
Jack shifted nervously. This was some freaky talk. Except for his Sony Playstation and the occasional computer program that Carter talked him through, he didn’t much like computers. He liked them even less when they did freaky things like connect to living human beings or assimilate civilizations or make lots of little creepy bugs out of small tiles that wouldn’t stay dead when you shot them.
“Are there others who are obsolete?”
Bit nodded.
Daniel continued, “Where are they?”
Bit hesitated again and then motioned to them. He turned and walked back through the second doorway. Daniel glanced at Jack who looked surprised.
“I didn’t see any other people around,” Daniel said.
Jack shrugged and walked after Bit. Daniel followed.
They walked through the second room and through yet another door and into a short hallway. At the end of the hallway, Bit disappeared down a set of stairs. Jack glanced back at Daniel. “Heads up.”
Daniel nodded, even though he had no weapon, and followed Jack slowly down the stairs. When they were at the bottom, they saw the other obsolete workers. Several skeletons lay curled on the floor in the corner. Daniel let out a heavy breath.
“Does the system kill them, or do they just… die?”
Bit fidgeted. “They do not know how to live outside. There is no reason.”
“You did.”
“I remember… different times.” Bit seemed thoughtful for a moment.
Jack suddenly spied something and walked away from them and to another corner of the room. He leaned down and picked up a SGC pack. “Where did you get this?”
Bit swallowed. “It was recycled by the system. It wasn’t needed!”
Jack walked it back and set it on the floor, flipping up the cover and pawing through it. “It’s your pack, Daniel. Looks mostly intact.”
"It was not needed," Bit insisted.
Daniel held out a hand in reassurance. "It's all right. We understand. I'd like to take it back though."
Bit chewed his lip and fidgeted.
Jack pulled a plastic bag out of a side pocket of the pack. He opened it and took 2 power bars out and held them up. "We'll give you more in trade. Okay?"
Bit furrowed his brows. "Trade," he repeated.
Jack held out the three power bars. "You take these. We take this." He patted the pack.
Bit glanced between them and then eased forward and grabbed the bars from Jack's hand. "Yes."
Bit was scared and far too twitchy after that. He had trouble concentrating on Daniel’s questions, and Jack realized they’d gotten everything out of them they were going to get.
They walked slowly back to the church, talking only occasionally. The information had been ominous and not useful in a tactical sense, but it had filled in some of the blanks concerning the people and the buildings of this planet. It had also given a clearer picture of what Carter was doing at that moment, and the thought cast a dark mood over the remaining members of SG-1.
"You don't suppose we could get detailed floor plans out of him, do you?" Jack asked, wryly, as they walked.
"I doubt it," Daniel replied. "Give him some time to settle down, and I'll talk to him again."
"I wonder why I was ‘recycled’... " Jack pondered, lifting his fingers to make quotation marks in the air.
"Maybe you just didn't have the kind of knowledge they wanted," Daniel offered.
"Maybe. But I could have pushed a broom like you were."
"Perhaps your brain was not able to connect to the system, O'Neill." Teal'c readjusted the pack on his shoulder.
Jack eyed him. "What do you mean by that?"
Teal'c opened his mouth to answer, but Daniel jumped in with a warning glance. "Ahh, maybe it was the ancient knowledge that was downloaded into your brain."
“That’s gone now.”
“Yes, but it may have fundamentally changed your brain in some way, Jack. Even on a molecular level. It might have made a difference in this instance.”
Jack looked at him sideways with a suspicious expression. "I suppose... "
Daniel’s gaze shifted over Jack’s shoulder, and Jack snapped his head around just in time to catch Teal'c giving Daniel the raised eyebrow. Jack scowled. "You know, maybe my brain was just not all exhausted from thinking about science all the time. Maybe my brain was resistant to their mind control. You ever think of that?"
Teal'c stared at him for a long moment. "I am certain that is correct, O'Neill."
He didn't sound certain. He sounded vaguely patronizing. Jack gave him a look of displeasure. Teal'c just gave him the eyebrow again.
"In any case," Daniel stated, interrupting their silent battle. "It's a good thing you were recycled, or I'd still be working body clean-up and Teal'c would likely be dead."
"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.
"Yeah, well, we're not done yet." Jack sobered as they climbed the hill to the church.
He sat on the balcony that night with his back against the thick, painted window, looking out into the darkness. When he stared at the stygian sky, he saw occasional ripples of light. They would roll across the sky and reflect ever so slightly from the tops of the black buildings. He thought he heard thunder sometimes.
He hated this place. What might have once been fascinating was now just exhausting and unbearable. He wanted to blow it out of the universe. He wanted to turn a bright light on it. He wanted his team back. He wanted all of them, whole and healthy and back where they belonged.
Goddamn it.
+ + +
[ atrophy ]
The next day, he woke up to find Daniel gone. He wasn’t unduly disturbed at first, figuring the man had gone for water or couldn’t sleep and was wandering nearby, but when several hours had passed with no sign of him, Jack got worried.
Teal’c was still not a hundred percent. He spent more time than usual in kel-no-reem, trying to repair both himself and his symbiote. Although they gave him the majority of the food, there simply wasn’t much to spare. Jack’s trousers were already looser. The MRE’s were the best possible thing to have in this situation with their decent caloric content, but they had to space them out. The goal was to keep from starving, not to be well fed. Finding Daniel’s pack with its treasure trove of another 8 MRE’s had buoyed his hopes a bit.
Jack used the monocular to search the city’s streets for signs of Daniel. It wasn’t until he trained the spyglass on Bit’s place that he saw the archeologist trudging back toward the church, a big bag in his hands.
Jack was waiting for him at the front door when he returned.
“What the hell were you thinking?”
Daniel blinked at him, stopping short as he crested the hill to the church and was met by Jack’s angry demand. “What are you talking about?”
“Did you even take a zat with you?”
“I-“
“I’ll answer that for you,” Jack snapped, not allowing him to finish. “No, you didn’t. I know because they’re both laying right where we put them last night.”
“I couldn’t sleep, and we needed more information from Bit,” Daniel protested.
“And you couldn’t wake either me or Teal’c to go with you? Daniel, how the hell do you know if that guy is dangerous or not?”
“Well, obviously not. I’m here, aren’t I?” Daniel was getting that steely, stubborn glint to his eyes that warned of his irritation.
“I didn’t drag your ass out of zombie-central just for you to get yourself killed by a lack of common sense.”
“Jack,” Daniel growled, jaws tight and eyes hard.
“This isn’t some fascinating social experiment, Daniel. How do I drill that through your head?” Jack was aware he was going a little overboard, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He’d managed to get two members of his team back and was desperate to go in and get the third. He didn’t want to slip backwards by suddenly losing one.
“Jack!” Daniel’s voice was a sharp crack above the quiet hum of the city. Jack focused on him. Daniel held up the bag in his hands. “I found food!”
+ + +
Jack stared at the sticky brown bar in his hands. About the size of a deck of cards, it seemed to be made of some sort of pureed grain and… other things he couldn’t identify, and was then pressed together into a bar that was soft and sticky and didn’t really smell all that appetizing. He glanced at Teal’c and saw him studying the bar with a vastly uncomfortable expression on his face, the eyebrow doing double-duty.
“This is food?” Jack asked.
Daniel smiled. “Yup!”
“For humans?” Jack added, dryly.
“Of course!” Daniel pulled another one from his sack. It was encased in a thick, peel-able plastic, almost like a rind. “I think they’re some sort of emergency ration that this planet’s military used. There were just crates upon crates of these things in the building that Bit showed me. I think it was sort of apocalyptic at the end, and the survivors gathered all the food and supplies into one area for the long haul.” Daniel gave a sad frown. “Which, um, wasn’t all that long really.”
Teal’c sniffed his bar and jerked his head back again, eyes lifting suspiciously to Daniel. “This does not smell like palatable food, Daniel Jackson. It is possible it has spoiled.”
“Yeah,” Jack agreed, pointing at Teal’c. “Didn’t they have any Spam or maybe a nice Twinkie or two? Those last forever, don’t they?”
“It’s not spoiled. Their preservation technology is really amazing. They even had what looked like fruit preserved in glass jars… and they were whole and not dried or soaking in brine or preservatives.”
Jack twisted a corner of his mouth down. “And yet you chose to bring us these instead.”
Daniel grimaced. “Well, honestly, Jack… there was a lot of food, but it was Bit’s lifetime supply. I didn’t feel right.”
Jack sighed. Typical Daniel. Maybe he was right. Still… he stared at the bar uneasily. “You know, these could have anything in them. They might not be safe.”
“They’re fine,” Daniel stated with enough confidence that Jack eyed him from under raised brows.
“And you would know that… how?” Jack put some warning into his tone. Goddamn it, Daniel.
“Because I ate one on the way back.”
“Goddamn it, Daniel!”
Daniel shrugged. “Well, one of us had to try them, and I knew you’d be all paranoid about it, so I just did it. And I feel fine. They’re a little chewy and don’t have much of a flavor, but I feel pretty good. I think the nutrition in them is compact and pretty dense.”
Jack glared at him, but then Teal’c took a bite of his bar. Jack watched him as he chewed and then swallowed. “Well?”
Teal’c hesitated, waiting. “I feel fine, O’Neill. Perhaps you should wait until tomorrow to partake though. Then you can be sure that Daniel Jackson and I have suffered no ill effects.”
Jack looked between them, irritation written all over his features, before he swore quietly. “Aw, hell, it’s already open.” He took a bite. Daniel was right. It was chewy and tasted vaguely meaty and had a grainy texture. It wasn’t horrible though, and it seemed to sit well in his stomach.
All right. So they had food. Of a sort anyway. One more thing off his mind. He opened one of their canteens to wash the bite down and then leaned back against the table in their loft to finish eating the ration bar. “So, what else did you find out?” He asked Daniel.
Daniel sank down onto the wide pallet where he still slept in Carter’s sleeping bag. Since he’d been sleeping in it for nearly a week, it made more sense to just let her use his when, and if, they found her. “Not much really. Bit isn’t too focused on anything but day-to-day survival. I have a feeling that being hooked to ‘the system’”-Daniel said the words with deliberate emphasis-“takes a toll on the human mind.”
“Ya think?” Jack took another swig of water.
Daniel ignored him. “The building he showed me when I asked about food was spectacular. It was obviously a shelter, and it was stocked to the ceiling. I could have explored it all day. It told a lot about the society that used to live here. Something big happened on this planet not too long ago, and it took over.”
Jack wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and shot him a sardonic glance. “Something like… Hal 9000?”
Daniel didn’t smile. “Something like that, yeah.”
“You believe this planet has been taken over by a sentient computer, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c furrowed his brows.
“I’m not really sure, Teal’c,” Daniel replied, rubbing his fingers over the sharp shadow of beard on his jaw. “All I know is what I remember from being ‘connected’ and what I’ve observed out here since then. And obviously something or someone is controlling everything and everyone here. Even the climate seems controlled.” He motioned toward the window and outside. “ Every basic job has workers to keep the system running. Obviously the technology is computer driven and the prime objective seems to be the upkeep of ‘The System’, as Bit calls it.” He scrubbed at his face and then ran his fingers tiredly into his hair, bracing his elbows on his knees.
“Daniel?”
He glanced up again. “I’m okay. I just… talking to Bit about it all made me remember more things about my time inside of it.”
”What sort of things?”
“Just images mostly. Walking hallways, the people I saw, the way information was always just there for me when I needed it.”
“Hive mind?”
Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know. Whenever I needed to know something, it was just… there. But at the same time, I don’t remember any other voices. I never communicated with the other workers. Ever.”
“You were pretty glazed over when I found you. You didn’t fight me, you just kept trying to avoid me and walk away.”
Daniel shook his head. “I didn’t have a need to remember anything because whatever I needed to know would be fed to me. I think that’s why I’m having a hard time remembering things.”
Jack walked over to him and gripped his shoulder briefly. “It’s all right. We’ve got time now.”
Daniel took a deep breath. “How much time does Sam have though?”
“We’re going in and we’re not coming out without her, whether we go in blind or not.”
Daniel glanced at Teal’c, who nodded slowly at him, eyes determined and confident. Jack gave his shoulder a squeeze and then moved off. “Whatever it takes.”
+ + +
[ depth perception ]
Daniel
The talk with Bit had done amazing things to his mind. Just hearing the terminology that Bit used when talking about The System had spurred Daniel’s mind into turmoil.
He dreamed that night as he did most nights now, of walking long, straight corridors. He never felt lost. He always knew exactly where he was going. He saw brightly lit rows of workers, all in white suits, wired to the gills and eerily silent as they sat in their docking bays. Sometimes The System would send him to a bay that was dark. Inside was always a lifeless body, the unit expired. The System would immediately shut down the connection, and Daniel would disconnect them and take them out to be recycled.
Except…
Except this dream was different. In this one he kept finding himself in a certain room. At the very bottom of the building. And there was a unit he was drawn to again and again. He knew this unit was female, and that shouldn’t have mattered or made sense to him, but it did. He suddenly saw image after image of himself standing beside her, staring down. She was just like the other units, in a white suit and hard-wired, head shaved to make the contact points smooth and accessible. But… something was different.
Daniel woke with a jerk; sweat beading on his brow. He sat up in the pallet and felt the breath heavy in his lungs. His heart was racing, and the utter darkness disoriented him for a moment. Before he’d gotten his bearings, he’d propelled himself out of bed and onto the floor, fumbling forward until he’d planted a hand directly into Jack’s back.
“Jack!” His sleep-drenched voice was loud and dry.
Jack woke, startled, and turned beneath Daniel’s trembling hands. “What the hell? Daniel?”
“I know,” Daniel whispered hoarsely.
“Daniel, settle down.” Jack’s voice was irritated. Across the loft, Daniel heard Teal’c stir and come toward them. He sat back on his heels and focused on their shadows.
“I know,” Daniel repeated, his voice gaining strength. “I know where Sam is.”
+ + +
Jack
They went in to get Carter two days later.
Teal’c was strong enough, and they’d been able to stop the rationing. While the native ration bars made the worst MRE seem like a gourmet meal, Daniel had been right. They were fortifying and dense. Two bars could easily sustain a man Teal’c’s size for a day. You didn’t even get hungry. Daniel suspected they were made with some sort of time-release ability similar to earthly cold medications. Whatever, they did wonders.
Their gear was meager. The retrieval of Daniel’s pack had given them nothing of a tactical advantage. There’d been no zat or pistol, not even a knife or a rope. In the end, Jack had made them suit up lightly anyway. They’d need to move fast, and like before, the best scenario ended with all four of them gating home. The worst he refused to think about. Either way, they didn’t need their extra equipment. It was expendable.
Jack cleaned the Swiss Army Knife and tucked it into his shirt pocket. This time, they wouldn’t give the Interceptors a chance to target them. He allowed Daniel to carry a small hand-made pack on his belt with 2 MRE’s and the med kit inside. If they got Carter out but were somehow stranded elsewhere, he wanted to be prepared to take care of her. They all carried canteens and homemade knives that Teal’c had made which were basically prison shivs made of scrap metal and wood. He and Teal’c carried the two zats.
They got in the same way Jack had the last time. A careful exploration of the junkyard showed no sign of guards, and there was plenty of cord in the pile. The corded wire he’d used last time was removed from the chute as expected, but when the doors opened to let down a rain of scrap, Jack could see that nothing had been done to safeguard the entrance.
“It might not have realized how you got in,” Daniel theorized. He’d taken to calling the city and the buildings and the entire system “it” instead of “them”. “The rope was probably just an obstruction in the chute and had to be removed.”
“Well, it’s our lucky day then,” Jack commented grimly. He was in a somber mood. He was accustomed to burying his nervousness and doing the job that needed to be done, but concern for Sam was also leaking through. Finding her was the first step. Then they’d see what sort of shape she was in.
The three of them made quick work of fashioning a grappling hook and braiding it into a long coil of wire. The peak of the junk pile seemed to always be within 50 feet or so of the chute’s doors. Jack suspected that some of the workers must come out to rake the scrap out toward the walls of the huge yard, but he’d never seen anyone.
“Hey,” Daniel suddenly called softly from where he knelt working on the cord. Jack looked over at him. Daniel nodded toward one of the entrances to the yard. Jack glanced that way and saw Bit peering at them from the opening.
“Will he try to interfere?” Teal’c asked, eyes hard.
“I don’t think so. He’s probably just wondering what the hell we’re doing.” Daniel sighed.
“He tried to steal my jacket the last time I saw him here.” Jack felt uneasy with an audience.
“Well, he thought you were dead,” Daniel replied, faint smile on his face.
“As long as he keeps quiet.”
“Jack… “ Daniel said hesitantly.
Jack ground his teeth together. He hated that tone. That tone meant Daniel was going to point something out that Jack wouldn’t be happy about. “What?” It came out more snappish than he’d intended.
Daniel didn’t fluster easily though. He steadily held Jack’s gaze. “We can’t just leave him here alone. He’s an outcast. We need to take him back through the gate with us.”
“This is his home, Daniel. He hasn’t asked us to take him back with us.”
“He doesn’t even realize there’s a different life available to him. He survives when everyone else who is obsolete dies.”
“We cannot force this man to leave if he does not wish it,” Teal’c stated.
“I know. I’m just saying we have to try.”
Jack blew a light breath out between his lips and hesitated in his work, squinting at Daniel. “The best case scenario here is that we find Carter and the gate and we go home today. If that happens, we are going through that gate. We’ll decide how to help Bit later, once we’re all out of danger. Getting you home safely is my first priority, Daniel. That’s non-negotiable.”
Daniel seemed to want to argue that. He looked disagreeable and opened his mouth to speak.
Jack cut him off before he got started. “Non-negotiable, Daniel.”
Daniel chewed the inside of his lip and furrowed his brows. “All right. Let’s just find Sam first. We can worry about everything else later.”
Jack was willing to let him get by with that. They needed to concentrate on the task at hand.
+ + +
[ infrastructure ]
They had to wait in the narrow tunnel beneath the chute control room for several long minutes while the worker there completed his job. Daniel seemed abnormally preoccupied, and Jack could guess why. He watched as Daniel reached out again and again and laid fingers upon the eerily cool, vibrating walls.
“Creepy,” Jack remarked quietly to him. Daniel glanced at him and nodded, and even Teal’c gave a small sound of agreement.
Once the worker had gone, they climbed up the short ladder and into the upper level. Daniel glanced around with an uneasy expression.
“This is where I found you,” Jack explained. “And, um, zatted you.”
Daniel didn’t answer, but he walked over to the control panel to give it a once over. Jack listened for that louder rumbling sound that had seemed to throw the building into a tizzy the last time. It was quiet except for the ever-present hum. Teal’c, zat ready, took a short recon walk up the hallway leading out of the control room.
“Let’s get moving,” Jack finally urged Daniel as he glanced back from the control panel. Daniel nodded, and they moved carefully down the hallway after Teal’c.
“Where are we going?” Jack asked, as they reached the first intersection. He lowered himself to place a penny on the floor as he did the last time.
Daniel closed his eyes and thought about it a moment. “Straight ahead.”
They walked forward with Jack in the lead and Daniel behind him. Teal’c trailed a few steps, watching their backs.
“She’s deep,” Daniel said as they walked. “No windows and it’s dark. I remember having to go down quite a ways.” He led them through the corridors until they reached a seeming pivot point in the building. There was a circular shaft that ran up and down through the building with a wide hallway surrounding it. Corridors branched off this area like spokes on a wheel. Jack placed a penny on the one they’d come out of.
“What is this place?” Teal’c asked, worried.
Daniel licked his lips and looked up to where the shaft disappeared through the ceiling. “It’s the central hub of the building. I would sometimes have to do maintenance here.” He walked around the shaft slowly and then stopped. He leaned close to the surface and then used his fingernails to pry open a small door. They all leaned over to have a look inside.
A smaller shaft of glowing red light ran up through the center disappearing far above and far below. Thin black wires connected it to the walls. The same wiring also lay flat and thick against the inner surfaces of the shaft. Jack felt his head begin to throb.
“You feel that?” He asked. He pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead.
“It is most uncomfortable,” Teal’c said. He shifted nervously.
Daniel frowned. “It does feel weird. As if there’s some sort of wave coming off of it.” He held a hand out as if he might be able to feel it radiating from within.
“I think you’d better shut that door,” Jack warned.
For once, Daniel didn’t argue. He shut the door and stepped away from it.
“Which way?” Jack asked, trying to keep him focused.
Daniel glanced around and then walked around to the opposite side of the shaft. He stood in front of a door, and it opened revealing an elevator. “Here.”
They stepped into the small elevator, and the door shushed closed behind them. Daniel stared at the wall where a control panel would be located on Earth. “Ummm…”
“How did you control it before?” Jack asked as his eyes scanned the wall for the faint indentation he’d seen before.
“I don’t think I did,” Daniel replied. “I think The System did it for me. It knew where it was sending me so it just sent me there.”
“That is most unhelpful,” Teal’c stated. He sounded vaguely miffed, and it drew a raised brow from Daniel.
Jack traced the indentation he’d found on the wall with his fingertips. He found a place where the panel’s door was bent outwards just enough to catch the edge with the pad of his forefinger, and he forced it outward. The door popped open.
“What the hell is that?” Daniel exclaimed, looking over his shoulder.
Jack backed off and let him in. “It’s how I operated one of these things when I went looking for Teal’c.”
Daniel studied it with interest. “It looks like a much less futuristic version of an elevator. As if this is actually an older building, but was simply remodeled into what it is now.”
“Which button do we press to get to Carter?” Jack asked impatiently.
Daniel thought about that. “Truthfully? I’m not sure. I’ll know the level when I see it.” He reached out and pushed the bottom button.
“Daniel!” Jack protested as the elevator suddenly hummed and began moving.
“I know she’s deep, so we might as well try the bottom button first,” Daniel explained.
Jack swallowed a snippy reply about Daniel’s seeming urge to touch things and push buttons before Jack had had time to assess the situation, but it was already done, and it was a logical move in any case.
Jack put himself and Teal’c back to back to face both doors in the elevator. He wasn’t going to be taken by surprise twice by that move.
The first time the doors opened, they revealed more corridors, and Daniel shook his head and hit the next button up from the last.
The second time, they revealed a huge room of upright electronic panels with pulsing blue lights. Workers in white suits stood in front of them, wires running from their limbs and their heads into the panels. The workers moved restlessly, shifting on their feet, arms held at odd angles. Jack felt suddenly cold.
Daniel shook his head though, and hit another button.
The third time, they saw a dimly lit hallway, and Daniel nodded. They stepped warily out of the elevator and walked forward. The hum seemed louder here, and that alone made Jack nervous and hopeful.
A little ways down the hall they came to a door. Jack touched it lightly, and it slid suddenly open. He jerked back slightly, but then leaned forward when he saw no one and nothing immediately threatening. It looked like a lab. There were machines and tables and shelves of vials and tubes and bags. Everything was immaculately clean, but then the whole place seemed that way.
Jack stepped inside, zat held ready. Daniel stepped in behind him. The room was small, and Jack cleared it in moments. No workers huddled behind shelving or tables. No Carter either. He was about to move out into the hallway again when Daniel gave a sharp whisper.
“Jack!”
Jack turned and saw Daniel holding up one of their P-90’s. His eyes widened in joy. “Sweet!” He walked quickly over and found the other two automatic weapons along with Daniel’s pistol all laying on one of the lab tables. There was no sign of Teal’c’s staff weapon. There were deep scratches in the metal where it looked as if samples had been taken. The clips were laying alongside the guns, a few bullets disassembled on the table.
Jack picked them up one by one, loading the clips back into them. There were four extra clips and that was all. They usually held ten altogether, but a quick search failed to reveal the remaining six. The pistol held one clip, and only four bullets. Jack handed Daniel one of the P-90’s and tucked the pistol into his belt. He picked up another P-90 and tossed the last one to Teal’c.
“Now,” he said, eyes glittering. “Now, we find Carter.”
+ + +
Part 3